Stan Ridgway Hits a Wall of Wildness

Stan Ridgway isn’t one for obvious career moves, having abandoned the successful band Wall of Voodoo a decade ago for an uncertain solo career featuring wiseguy tales of urban despair that haven’t exactly followed the usual Top 40 formulas. So if his new Drywall trio fails to cross over into the pop mainstream, maybe it’s just because his songs are so strange, amusing and, well, interesting.

On the new “Work the Dumb Oracle” album, the music has an industrial rigidness. But at Jacks Sugar Shack on Thursday, Drywall was far more earthbound, rich and even bluesy.

Ridgway still sings with his trademark-mannered vocal style dripping with sarcasm--but on stage he’s found a new wildness. Perhaps he’s just inspired by the chaotic mix of keyboards and samples from Pietra Wexstun, who wove a backdrop of police radio chatter, sci-fi sound effects and odd melodies.

The bandleader bowed to nostalgia only once, performing Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire,” a cult hit for Wall of Voodoo in 1980. It was otherwise on to new business, singing of highways and earthquakes, of police and darker American values, and all of it with a grim wisecrack or two.

Opening the show were brothers Chip and Tony Kinman, who found their biggest audience in the early ‘80s with the punk-flavored country act Rank and File. Singer-bassist Tony launched the set with that band’s “Sundown,” sung with a slow country baritone.

But most of their 45-minute set was filled with melodic guitar rock. Joined by former Dream Syndicate drummer Dennis Duck, the Kinmans were pleasant but unexcitable hosts. The music did the moving, so they didn’t have to.