PERFORMING ARTS

Angelique Kidjo

Okay, okay -- so the latest album of Beninese Afro-pop sensation Angelique Kidjo has just been released by Starbucks, of all people, and will be marketed alongside Orange Crème Frappuccinos, Caramel Macchiatos and other froth for the summer. Does it matter? Kidjo has always been a crowd-pleaser, and "Djin Djin," with its infectious dance rhythms, catchy melodies and high-profile guest artists (Alicia Keys and Peter Gabriel, to name two) is, for the most part, a stunning new recording.

But Kidjo's full-bodied music really needs to be heard live, as she proved Thursday night at Lisner Auditorium. She's a born performer, and few singers have a voice like this -- rich as a double espresso and strong enough to topple small buildings. And backed up by a superb five- piece band, Kidjo roared, growled and purred her way through most of the songs off the new album, turning in a set that had the packed house dancing in the aisles.

Swiveling across the stage on pneumatic hips and delivering snippets of her generic "We are all one" philosophy, Kidjo had the audience in her hand from the get-go, alternating powerhouses such as "Mama Golo Papa" with sultry ballads such as "Salala." It was an eclectic mix -- Kidjo's music draws on influences from Brazilian samba to Cameroonian makossa -- but she made it all work, and even the few duds (a prettified "Gimme Shelter" and the top-40 "Iwoya") couldn't derail the rising intensity. And when Kidjo invited the audience up on stage to dance to the finale, "Tombo," the atmosphere was electric -- almost as if we really were all one, after all.

-- Stephen Brookes

Mando Daio and Pop Levi

To judge from its early releases, Mando Diao began as an exception to the clean, tidy sound of Swedish pop-rock. The quintet owed less to Abba than to Britain's anarchic Libertines. But Mando Diao's new album, "Ode to Ochrasy," is tighter than its predecessors, and Thursday night at the Black Cat the band revealed itself as utterly in control. It could teeter on the edge of mayhem, but such songs as "The Wildfire (If It Was True)" were as carefully structured as Abba's "Dancing Queen."

Sometimes supplemented by a percussionist, the five musicians played about a dozen hooky tunes whose most frequent speed was a jubilant gallop. (The change-of-pace ballads were limited to one.) Singer-guitarists Bjorn Dixgard and Gustaf Noren traded places and vocals naturally, and when bassist Carl Johan Fogelklou added his voice, Mando Diao proved itself the rare power-pop band whose three-part harmonies don't turn to mud onstage. The set closed with the new album's highlight, and the song that sounds most like the band's earlier material, "Long Before Rock 'n' Roll." Characteristically, the infectious rocker was loose around the edges but solid at its core.

British rocker Pop Levi, who preceded Mando Diao, builds his material from many of the same ingredients as the headliner. But rather than confine his vamps and thumps within three-minute numbers, Levi and his three-piece band stretched them like Silly Putty. The four-song, 35-minute set collaged power chords, Bo Diddley beats and occasional vocals into something that resembled '60s garage-rock, yet had the monomaniacal churn of disco.

-- Mark Jenkins