Going solo, focusing on the soul

In his new guise as a solo artist, temporary or otherwise, Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas says he’s looking for -- as the title of his new album says -- “Something to Be.” For a couple of songs in an album-release-day concert Tuesday at the Avalon in Hollywood, it seemed he might have found it: a blue-eyed soul singer.

Opening with the album’s title song and the also-new “Falling to Pieces,” Thomas showed an affinity for that tone, boosted by the straightforwardly earthy performance of the hired-hand musicians assembled behind him. Vocally, of course, he doesn’t have the character or chops of a Daryl Hall, let alone an Al Green. But the bounce in his figurative step and in the groove of the band was enough to separate this from his pop-rock Matchbox identity and point to some solid new possibilities.

Unfortunately, it was also something of a tease. For much of the show, Thomas retreated to the safe harbor of mid-tempo balladry and soft shuffles, including several Matchbox favorites. Worse, he never let his band cut loose, and from the hints that could be gleaned, this was a band with great potential, especially the rhythm section of bassist Al Carty and drummer Abe Fogle and three soulful background singers. It was, however, just his third show with this group.

A mid-show “Street Corner Symphony” evoked the playful romanticism of the Rascals or Hall & Oates, and there was a well-meaning stab at Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine,” though Thomas doesn’t have Withers’ vocal character either. Frankly, the slinky Withers groove would have been better transferred to the slowed-down encore version of “Smooth,” the 1999 Santana collaboration that first gave Thomas a mainstream profile apart from Matchbox.

Rather than asking what he wants to be as a soloist, the more important questions are why he wanted to go solo in the first place and, once that’s answered, how he can best go about it.