Soul Coughing Romps in Engaging Evening of Hip-Hop

Thick smoke, dim, reddish light and the El Rey Theatre’s anachronistic grandeur lent Soul Coughing’s concert on Saturday the feel of a hip-hop speak-easy, a vibe that perfectly complemented the band’s jazz- and R&B-tinged; alternative hip-hop.

Using keyboards, drums, stand-up bass, electric guitar and plenty of offbeat samples, the New York quartet delivered a tight, involving 90-minute set drawn largely from its 1996 album, “Irresistible Bliss,” but also including earlier works. The players grounded their hyperactive melodies and staccato rhythms with a nearly relentless funk-flavored beat that kept the songs coherent no matter how many scraps went into the sonic soup.

Soul Coughing’s recordings have an oddball intellectual appeal, but the largely twentysomething crowd’s enthusiasm was perhaps more compelled by the geeky charisma of close-shorn, bespectacled frontman-guitarist M. Doughty, with his affected stage manner and disaffected raps and singing. He cheerfully engaged the audience in call-and-response vocals on a few numbers, and playfully grafted onto his songs the lyrics of artists as diverse as the Beatles, Madonna, Black Sabbath and Chicago soul singer Tyrone Davis.

Soul Coughing’s balance of electronic and organic sounds kept the music engaging, with all those lyrical bits of found philosophy, apparent non sequiturs and sampled dialogue gaining nuances not always heard on the albums--from wistful to urgent to demented. The surreal ambience had its effect, as well, blending another layer of color into the palette of moods shaded by the band.