Incubus drums up support at Thomas & Mack

Spencer Patterson

Monday, Aug. 16, 2004 | 8:29 a.m.

Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center headliner Incubus proved it is not the average superstar rock band.

With Sparta drummer Tony Hajjar sidelined with a broken wrist, Incubus skins man Jose Pasillas and bassist Ben Kenney stepped in, alternating turns on drums throughout the El Paso, Texas, group's six-song support set.

Pasillas and Kenney -- who have played with Sparta every night since Hajjar suffered his injury playing basketball last week -- didn't have long to learn the music. And they still had their own band's two-hour performance ahead of them.

But judging from the smiles on their faces as they pounded away, neither appeared the slightest bit put out by the turn of events.

It was quite the unpretentious gesture for Incubus, an outfit with a string of mainstream rock hits on its resume and a band whose frontman is dating supermodel Carolyn Murphy.

Perhaps it helps explain why the Southern Californians remain so popular, even as many of their peers fade into the background.

The T&M wasn't quite full on Saturday, with about 1,000 of the show's 6,500 tickets going unsold. With summer concert attendance down all over the country this year, however, it was a fairly strong showing, made more so by the enthusiastic reception by those who did attend.

Fans -- most of them in their teens and 20s -- leapt into the air as the quintet kicked off their high-energy set with the one-two punch of recent No. 1 single "Megalomaniac" and 2001 top-10 hit "Nice to Know You."

Lumped in with nu-metal bands such as Korn and Limp Bizkit when they broke onto the scene in the late 1990s, Incubus has shed that label in recent years by exhibiting a more mature approach.

Though he still gets funky with his vocals now and then, Brandon Boyd demonstrated that he's no mere rap-rock singer, soaring high on new ballad "Here in My Room" and then testing both ends of his vocal range on the sultry "Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song)."

Guitarist Michael Einziger easily handled his crunchy leads on metallic numbers such as "Idiot Box" and "A Certain Shade of Green," but seemed more eager to veer into distinctly jam-band territory during a free-form instrumental breakdown late in the show.

Boyd, Pasillas and Kenney (formerly of hip-hop group the Roots) also presented Incubus' version of a drum circle, a collaborative update on rock's antiquated drum-solo concept.

DJ Chris Kilmore's contributions -- turntable scratches and atmospheric background noises -- occasionally came off a bit forced. Otherwise the band sounded quite crisp, even if a half dozen or so tunes were nondescript.

Although longtime devotees likely dug heavier stuff such as rocking closer "Under My Umbrella," most of the crowd went for the band's mellower FM hits: "Wish You Were Here," "Drive," "Warning" and "Talk Shows on Mute."

Those well-known songs didn't draw the night's loudest cheer, however. That came when Boyd removed his T-shirt, a ritual he reportedly performs each night on tour.

Just in case the Sparta assist caused anyone to doubt Incubus' enduring celebrity status.