The funk-metal sound of Incubus found a faithful teenage following last Saturday when the Back to School Tour stopped in Upper Darby for two shows.
The creative quintet from Calabras, Calif., wasted no time in taking their unique mixture of musical styles to the youthful crowd. The opening song was a sign of great times to come as singer Brandon Boyd pulled double duty as a percussionist. With a bongo secured around his waist, Boyd belted out the vocals and pumped out the tunes on the bongo to their hit song “New Skin.”
The crowd had no trouble entrancing itself with the impassioned sound of Incubus after an opening performance by the band Taproot, who played tracks from their album Gift. Poor sound quality kept Taproot’s “gift” from being opened by the crowd who could not enjoy the pounding muffled lyrics from lead singer Stephen Richards.
Since forming in 1991, Incubus has created unique mixtures of music that are truly pleasing to the ears. With four albums out they had plenty of playable material, but choose to stick with their latest albums, S.C.I.E.N.C.E. and Make Yourself, as the evening’s focus.
Onstage at the Tower Theater, the energetic Boyd swayed so deeply to his music that it seemed as if he were about to fall over. The band chose their energetic single “Stellar” for the third song of the night. “Stellar,” a traditional love song about love’s free flowing feeling, kicked the band into high gear and only further frenzied the crowd.
With teenage bodies surfing the crowd, Incubus poured on the excitement with animated performances of “Nowhere Fast”” and “Make Yourself.” Before settling into a set of softer songs, Incubus tapped out their powerfully emotional song “Drive.” A song about fear’s capabilities of driving your life and decisions, “Drive” is a song that imagines what life would be like if you didn’t live by fear.
Even after slowing things down, Incubus kept with its reputation as being the band you can’t help yourself from loving, by dedicating their love ballad “I Miss You” to all the guys in the house missing their perfect girl.
After the soft-spoken metal was freed from their system, Incubus closed out the night with their metal hit “Pardon Me.” A song about hard times and turmoil, “Pardon Me” is truly a powerful single that has defined the sound of Incubus.
The headlining band, the Deftones followed the peaceful and harmonious sound of Incubus with their chaotic taste for metal. The recent severe throat problems of vocalist Chino Moreno (which caused the cancellation of the Scranton show) prevented performance of a lot of their hard songs and put a damper on the night.
The way that Incubus is capable of capturing an audience is indescribable. Incubus is the kind of band that your parents would want you to see in concert because of their clean looking image and sound. Don’t let that kind of stereotype bother you because words cannot describe their musical brilliance. Incubus is amazing.
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