A Bouncy, Tame Show From Cale

Velvet Underground founding member John Cale is an iconoclast of legendary passions. At the El Rey Theatre, where he performed on Wednesday, he delivered little of his trademark disturbing theatrics. At times reminiscent of Leonard Cohen--but without Cohen’s pointed attack and agility with irony, Cale came across as tame as the bouncy avant-pop on the new “Walking on Locusts,” his first rock album in a decade.

Backed by a full rock band, Cale delivered heartfelt love songs and cautions about modern-day street temptations. Later, when he swapped his keyboard for a guitar, delving into a sweep of styles that ranged from rollicking blues to country-tinged rockers, he made the earlier part of the set feel like a warmup.

The true high of the evening was the encore, when Cale abandoned his light, poppish approach for a rousing, rowdy, gritty rendition of “Dirty Ass Rock ‘n’ Roll,” a song dating back two decades. Cale’s energy only accentuated the lack of passion with which he’d earlier sung “So What,” a new song lambasting modern greed, and the winsome “Entre Nous.”

Red House Painters opened the evening with a meandering, glitch-filled set that peaked with a version of John Denver’s “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” Annoyed when he found that two of his guitars weren’t tuned, singer Mark Kozelek complained that he had fired his guitar tech the night before. “Any way we can get him back?” he groused.