Mike Patton and Mr. Bungle Create Memorable Thunder

Pop and the avant-garde aren’t always a comfortable mix. Singer Mike Patton’s band Mr. Bungle was once just a side project, an escape from the hyper-funk-metal bombast of the now-defunct Faith No More. But it was a side project that suggested what Patton really wanted was to be Captain Beefheart.

At Mr. Bungle’s sold-out performance Thursday at the House of Blues, Patton and a frenetic six-man band made music that was complex and chaotic, with overlapping rhythms and melodies, blending surf with swing, Latin with Middle Eastern, a Doors lyric here, a Billy Squier tune there.

The energy was strange and intense, but Patton was still moved to ask his audience, “Everybody still with us out there?” Even if the subtleties of the band’s new album, “California,” were largely lost in the supercharged live atmosphere, Patton and the band should be congratulated for attracting a large audience for such an anti-pop blend.

Dressed in white slacks and a Hawaiian shirt, Patton was a crooning, grunting, wailing, smiling, snarling frontman. Songs that began as breathless ballads erupted into storms of noise and psychosis. “Sweet Charity” adopted an arch Beach Boys motif, while “Ars Moriendi” mingled gypsy music with Pac-Man sound effects. It was not always easy listening. But in Mr. Bungle, Patton has recast his old Faith No More thunder into something far more odd and memorable.