Reviews

Transcendence is a slick and slithery ambition to have. Most never bother. Those who do grasp it usually hold it only momentarily, before it slips away like a grinning, snickering eel.

REX C. CURRY/Special Contributor

Singer Dustin Kensrue and the band Thrice dazzled during an 85-minute set Tuesday at the Palladium Ballroom.

Thrice is achingly close to clutching transcendence on a number of levels. The Irvine, Calif., quartet is among just a handful of acts from post-hard-core punk's popularity surge to travel beyond that style and its inherent limitations and land somewhere more sonically fertile.

Its dazzling and exultant 85-minute set in front of about 800 people at the Palladium Ballroom on Tuesday heaved with an organic, poetic power that propped the collective up to ghostly deific heights.

The band weaved examples of its native "get this off my chest" screamo effortlessly with more delicate, harmonized odes, dynamic post-rock dirges and raspy, folksy musings, creating a veritable symphony of smart and conscious contemporary arena rock that few acts come close to replicating. Its intent is plain in its latest recorded project: a four-CD, dual-release package called The Alchemy Index that artfully addresses in song the universe's four elements: fire, water, air and earth.

But something's still missing: presence. Thrice's biggest problem has always been its live mien, which had ranged from rote and bashful at worst to noble and contrite at best. True transcendence won't happen until Thrice gets some attitude.

It's getting closer. Prolific singer-songwriter Dustin Kensrue has discovered new vocal timbres, from a Sting-like coo on "The Whaler" to a gravelly Steve Earle twang on "Come All You Weary." And Tuesday's practiced and vigorous selections spanned Thrice's six-album history.

Therein may rest the central issue. Thrice is a more righteous band than its roots show. It's time for it to focus on quality instead of quantity. Only then will Thrice be supple enough to snag transcendence from the open cesspool of rock.

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