Harper Applies the Blues’ Healing Powers

“It’s Nirvana,” shouted a jokester in the audience Saturday at the Universal Amphitheatre, as Ben Harper got in a decidedly grungy mood with his electric guitar.

Granted, Kurt Cobain is not the first rock ‘n’ roll icon that comes to mind when you hear Harper’s electro-blues explorations. But the Southern Californian’s eclectic style echoes a never-ending gallery of soulful legends, from Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley to Bob Dylan and Van Morrison. Hey, he even sang Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing” at the end of the show.

Harper exists, obviously, in a different era--a time when rock was a healing force that sought to stir your soul and make your hips shake at the same time. There’s enough funk in his songs to make them qualify as party music, but beneath the stirring instrumental combustion is a voice embittered by the injustices of the world and determined to change things with the power of his beliefs. Although there’s a lot of musical cannibalism going on in Harper’s material, that spirit is a welcome relief from the hip-hop millionaires and teenage sensations dominating the pop charts.

Harper and his three-man band, the Innocent Criminals, were most interesting Saturday when they combined contrasting elements from rock’s collective unconscious. The fiery intensity of his guitar, for instance, often evoked the menacing mood of heavy metal, but the noise was coupled with thoughtful lyrics condemning social oppression and analyzing relationships with doses of self-deprecating humor.

Opening act Gomez showed why it is one of the most exhilarating bands to come out of England in a long time. Working a territory similar to Harper’s, and unaffected by the wave of electronica, the youthful sextet has embarked on a successful quest to create the blues anthems for a new generation.