Restrained Yet Accessible, Duncan Sheik Still Soulful

Duncan Sheik’s voice is more smolder than fire. It burns quietly with the restrained passion of an injured romantic, not through tears, but in hopeful confrontation with the unsolvable problems of love and spirituality.

At the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on Monday, Sheik turned this lovelorn weariness into dreamy pop nuggets, finding a subtle emotionalism sometimes lost in his studio work.

Free from the lush orchestration of his new “Humming” album, these songs were spare and sometimes chilling, the guitars more aggressive, the percussion a touch sharper.

Yet even when his four-piece band (including two percussionists) stretched to include occasional touches of Indian and North African music, Sheik’s voice never soared beyond the comfort zone of somber restraint that characterizes his work. He sat behind a piano for the breathless melancholy of “Out of Order” and cast waves of soul across the folk-based rhythm of “She Runs Away.”

That purring, yearning blend helped his 1996 debut album, “Duncan Sheik,” sell more than 500,000 copies, largely on the strength of his “Barely Breathing” hit single. On Monday, the New Jersey singer-songwriter critiqued the very culture of rock stardom via “Nothing Special” yet embraced it too, piecing together a world view of pop philosophy during “That Says It All” that quoted the lyrics and notions of Dylan, Hendrix, Lennon and Jagger.

Sheik had an easy manner on stage, strumming a guitar while chatting as casually as he might in his living room. Before his 90-minute-plus set began, the singer could be found mingling in front of the club, autographing CDs and posing for pictures with fans.

The music was equally accessible. Sheik wisely kept his songs short and direct, performing only one epic (“Varying Degrees of Con-Artistry”). His songwriting still falls short of the transcendence he seems to seek; still, the music was performed with enough richness and warmth to keep it diverting and meaningful.

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Just before Sheik’s set, his band’s lead guitarist, Gerry Leonard, performed a moody three-song set of solo material under the name Spooky Ghost. “We’re gonna lull you into a soft sensuous slumber,” Leonard said, only half in jest.

Backed by a bassist and drum machine, Leonard drifted through passages of dark ambient sounds and warm funk, offering an unexpected challenge to an audience more prepared for Sheik’s soulful pop. Leonard’s soothing song fragments, hardly developed as proper songs, were moving and unpretentious all the same.