Punk Bands Move at High Velocity at Benefit

Despite the occasional comment about the evils of bombs, Thursday’s Plea for Peace/Take Action benefit concert for the Hopeline Suicide Network was on-point, as a clutch of punk bands churned passionately at the El Rey Theatre in a bid to raise awareness about the need for a national suicide network.

Benefit shows can be enough to induce attention-deficit disorder in the most stalwart concert-goer, but this lineup’s commitment to pith and velocity ironed out the slack.

Cave In, the most venturesome band in the lineup, gathered up strands of avant-rock, punk and heavy metal and sculpted great pillars of majestic guitar noise into songs that careened and caromed in and out of focus.

Alkaline Trio frontman Matt Skiba played an acoustic guitar and sang terse, caustic narratives about broken love affairs that packed the tender venom of early Elvis Costello.

In stark contrast, Hot Water Music, of Gainesville, Fla., wielded the iron cudgel of hard-core in songs whose tunefulness made the quartet’s aggression blossom into Technicolor noise.