Brad’s Eclectic Show Hurt by Lack of Focus

Shawn Smith is doubly blessed. The Seattle musician is both talented (he has a knack for writing accomplished and attractive songs in several pop idioms) and lucky (he has friends skilled enough to help him realize his musical ambitions and famous enough to help draw attention to him).

But fronting the band Brad--which includes Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard--at the Troubadour on Sunday, it was clear that Smith also has a deficiency common to people with natural gifts: a lack of focus. Not only is Brad just one of three groups Smith has going (along with Satchel and Pigeonhed, but even within this band, he skips from style to style rather than knuckling down to forge his influences into something of true distinction.

Brad started Sunday’s show, the first of two nights at the Troubadour, with the somber “Upon My Shoulder,” a track from the new “Interiors” album that sounds something like a lost Neil Young epic, underscored by Smith’s near-falsetto singing and haunting keyboards. That was followed by the roiling “Lift” (with its shifting time signatures) and forays into variations on early Billy Joel/Traffic balladry, solid if aimless funk and Lenny Kravitz-ish retro riff-rock.

Through all the polar swinging, the four supporting members never faltered. Gossard, actually, was overshadowed by James Hall (a dynamic solo artist in his own right who has joined for this tour) letting fly with some searing guitar work. But hanging over the show was the frustration of knowing that it should add up to much more.