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Charismatic Cranberries

The Patriot Center is hardly an ideal setting for the Cranberries' dreamy brand of pop, and yet there were times Tuesday night when it seemed as if lead vocalist Dolores O'Riordan were singing in a pub in her native Ireland or adding her seraphic voice to a church choir. Conjuring intimacy is not the least of her charms.

Indeed, at times she acted as choirmaster, inviting the nearly packed house to sing along with her, though there was scarcely any need for prodding when the quartet performed its hits "Linger" and "Zombie." Those songs, drawn from the group's first and current albums, defined O'Riordan's appeal as well as any. On "Linger," a bittersweet teenage love song, her voice was all yearning and innocence; on "Zombie," a broadside aimed at the IRA, her voice was charged with emotion and despair.

Charismatic, energetic and eager to please, O'Riordan also danced about during the less languorous tunes, sometimes in a herky-jerky fashion, as if she were Cyndi Lauper's Celtic cousin, and sometimes as an Irish step dancer, proud and precise. She may be a sensitive soul, but she also knows how to have a good time.