Thompson’s Songs, Talent Demand Attention

It’s pretty nervy of Marc Anthony Thompson to call his latest musical project Chocolate Genius, confronting the potentially daunting expectations imposed due to his skin color and the talents displayed on two largely overlooked albums he made under his own name.

And nervy was also the term for his show Wednesday at the Mint, with Thompson, accompanied by a four-piece band, testily demanding that the packed-in audience listen attentively and then delivering songs that were themselves quite demanding in range and content. Drawing mostly from the new Chocolate Genius album, “Black Music” (the title wryly referring to the songs’ dark hues rather than Thompson’s ethnicity), he moved from floating ache recalling mood-meister Mark Eitzel or Elvis Costello to lash-out verse in the spirit of Gil Scott-Heron.

The former dealt with such topics as watching his mother’s memory slip away (“My Mom”), while the latter (“Hangover Nine”) followed angry non sequiturs down a path to madness. These are songs that breathe, lyrically and musically, and guitarist Gregg Arreguin and keyboardist Jamie Muhoberac in particular utilized silences as much as sound to give an organic airiness to the material.

Thompson, wearing a pinstriped suit and perched on a stool, added extra life in remarks both bitter and sweet. Either way, this chocolate is rather tasty.