PERFORMING ARTS

Herbie Hancock

You can't please everyone, but that didn't prevent Herbie Hancock from giving it a go at Wolf Trap on Monday night during a decades-spanning, 2 1/2 -hour performance.

Dubbed "River of Possibilities," the renowned jazz keyboardist's tour is partly devoted to showcasing tunes from his last two pop-oriented recordings, including the 2007 Grammy-winning album of the year, the Joni Mitchell-inspired "River: The Joni Letters." Since these releases feature numerous A-list singers -- Christina Aguilera and Tina Turner, among others -- touring vocalists Sonya Kitchell and Amy Keys had their work cut out for them. Both are gifted performers -- Keys even managed to make Leon Russell's overtaxed ballad "A Song for You" seem worthy of another reprise. But nothing came close to trumping the sound of Hancock collaborating with guitarist Lionel Loueke, saxophonist Chris Potter, bassist Dave Holland and drummer Vince Colaiuta.

After opening with "Actual Proof," a vintage, funk-charged "Headhunters" album track, Hancock made certain that his band mates were given their due. Loueke, a native of Benin, displayed his mastery of odd-meter compositions, a highly distinctive guitar style and a whimsical, tongue-clucking, pedal effects-enhanced vocal flair. Though Holland was often heard on electric bass, an instrument he seldom plays, he contributed an artful, beautifully modulated acoustic solo interlude.

Potter, who has a commanding sound on tenor sax, forged a particularly turbulent alliance with Colaiuta during "Cantaloupe Island." As for Hancock, whether soulfully improvised, harmonically intriguing or electronically brash, his contributions offered familiar rewards right through the encores.

-- Mike Joyce

Rancid

Rancid is a neo-punk band only because it's 2008. But as the 17-year-old group proved on Monday at the 9:30 club, it might as well be 1977 forever.

The quartet also showed that its name could be rendered as about 400 different cool logos, which were projected on a giant screen along with extreme-contrast black-and-white films. (Everything had a photocopied fanzine look.)

Though a new Rancid CD is scheduled for the fall, the band hasn't released a studio record since 2003, so this tour had a "Hey, remember us?" feel. And judging from the club's sweaty, shoulder-to-shoulder sellout, plenty of people do: For 75 minutes and 29 songs, Rancid's rabid fans screamed along and saluted with their fists.

While the performance was somewhat perfunctory in that Rancid ripped through its set with little stage patter and few surprises, the group's ska-informed garage-rock songs are so tight that it's still a joy to hear poppy punk hits like "Ruby Soho" and "Time Bomb" blasted at max volume.

Rancid's musical template is based almost entirely on the Clash, an observation that is often lobbed at the California-based group as an insult. But very few bands can invoke the Clash's musical and lyrical charisma, and at its best Rancid comes close on both accounts.

Since there's no zeitgeist behind Rancid, its star may seem dim in relation to the Clash's. But there's no reason to discount Rancid's enormous catalogue of great punk songs just because it isn't 1977.

-- Christopher Porter