Powerman 5000 Lets Loose Ecstatic Energy and Aggression

Powerman 5000 is a high-concept unit. The band is tricky that way, crafting music that roars with power and aggression while somehow embracing a subversive layer of memorable hooks beneath all those raging guitars.

It’s a blend that has earned Powerman 5000 both mosh pits and platinum sales for its “Tonight the Stars Revolt!” album. At the first of two nights at the Palace on Wednesday, the quintet shook the capacity crowd with thundering beats, screaming guitars and leader Spider One’s anthemic vocals. But there was enough song craft beneath the sledgehammer attack to suggest that Powerman is flexible enough to grow beyond simple hard-rock categories.

There are few grand messages within the sci-fi pulp of Powerman’s songs, just lots of energy and melodrama. While some songs did get lost in the sludge, the show was quickly redeemed by the slinky chord patterns of “Blast Off to Nowhere” and “Nobody’s Real.”

The result Wednesday was notably more crisp and immediate than Powerman’s recorded work. It was loud and aggressive, but also entirely positive, for all the fist-pumping on stage or the occasional middle finger aimed at the crowd. Spider’s demeanor more reflected a man leading some ecstatic charge than an icon standing above his loyal followers.

Second-billed Static-X occasionally offered a similar taste of hard-rock complexity via such songs as the hit “Push It.” But most of the quartet’s set was devoted to finding the most aggressive rock survivable by its equally energized crowd. It was tight, diamond-hard stuff, but a little went a long way.