Paul Weller’s Heart Shows, but Wanders

With his first band, the Jam, Paul Weller helped in the late ‘70s to revive Britain’s mod scene, infusing a nervy blend of pop, R&B; and vintage fashion flair with a dose of biting punk irony.

When the Jam broke up in 1983, Weller took the neo-mod idea a step further with the Style Council, which eventually smothered between constrictive songwriting and compulsively tidy execution. Weller’s solo career, in contrast, has been refreshingly down-to-earth. Trading in the well-groomed influence of Motown for a looser, bluesier approach has allowed him to expand in more soulful directions.

The Englishman’s nearly two-hour-long set Friday at the Palladium comprised solo material spanning the last five years. For all the heartfelt feeling that went into the tunes and despite the warm reception from a full house, however, the music didn’t always hit home.

At times, his quartet’s playing was intense enough to permeate the cavernous Palladium with club-like immediacy, but just as often, particularly during extended jams and acoustic interludes, the subtler strengths of the songs were lost in the boomy acoustics of the venue.

Relinquishing the stylized gestures of his mod days certainly opened up the emotional dynamic of Weller’s music, but without a suitably intimate setting, that range of feeling unwound Friday with a frustrating inconsistency.