POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Digable Planets, Spearhead Come Home

Both acts were on the road, but the idea of home , literal and metaphorical, pervaded the performances of hip-hop forces Digable Planets and Spearhead at the House of Blues on Wednesday.

The headlining Planets were an instant hit with their 1993 debut album “Reachin’ (a New Refutation of Time and Space).” The group’s jazz-laced music, fanciful rhymes and stage names (Doodlebug, Ladybug and Butterfly) positioned it as a sort of bohemian alternative to its hard-core colleagues.

The recent “Blowout Comb” is equally seductive musically, an inventive patchwork of everything from film-score horns to sitar drone. The raps, though, have turned from nearly abstract to firmly militant.

The Planets’ revolutionary rhetoric on black pride and independence was delivered with an embracing warmth Wednesday (interestingly, to a predominantly white audience). The group also dipped back into those jazz roots and explored the spirit of its Brooklyn neighborhood.

Rejecting hip-hop’s casual approach to performance and its reliance on sampling and taped backing, Digable Planets come on strong with a full, seven-piece band, complete with a female deejay.

The versatile group never missed a step as it framed the deceptively casual-sounding raps with a panorama of black-music styles. Beyond the musical support, the combination of band and rappers generated a spirit of community that evoked the great eras of Motown and ‘60s soul.

The same values came across in the opening set by Spearhead. Leader Michael Franti, previously with the progressive rap group Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, has forged a dynamic blend of hip-hop and vintage soul, and he’s formed a band capable of putting it across with full impact.

* Digable Planets and Spearhead play on Sunday at the Galaxy Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana, 8 p.m. $26.50. (714) 957-0600.