A night with Incubus

The Sun Dome was nearly deserted at 7:20 p.m Tuesday, and the sight of the half-empty floor and only partly populated seats was dreadful.

The void, however, would soon be filled with hundreds of screaming Incubus fans, but not until after Har Mar Superstar, the opening act.

If Tenacious D became a Chippendale’s dancer, the outcome would be Har Mar Superstar. Shortened from Harold Martin, Har Mar is all that one can imagine — a chubby, pasty white boy with long, curly, thinning hair who happened to accompany Kelly Osbourne to the MTV Video Music Awards this year.

Har Mar’s white leisure suit and bright red graduation gown soon came off, to the disgust of the audience members. Shocking as this may sound, the un-buff artist slowly but surely removed all his clothing during his half-hour set, save his socks, shoes and blue-gray briefs.

While performing songs such as “Baby Do You Like My Clothes?” (quickly followed by a self-answering “Cause I sure don’t like yours/Unless they’re lying on the floor/With your body next to me baby”), Har Mar managed to bring together the melodies from techno, rap and the ’70s.

But even the fluffy hair and humorous lyrics could not save the genre-bender from the flying beer bottles thrown by the audience. Two songs after an amusing attempt at covering Fiona Apple’s “Criminal,” Har Mar left the stage almost naked and accompanied by loud booing, mostly from the male members of the audience. The females seemed more appreciative of Har Mar’s puckish nature.

After almost 45 minutes, which consisted of shameless plugs of new or freshly returning bands sponsored by For Your Entertainment, the crowd slowly began to fill the vacancies until more than 5,000 fans assembled for the show.

After much eagerness, Incubus opened with a track from Morning View, the album to which the tour was devoted. As the curtain fell, a stage revealing a crescent-shaped elevation became visible. Between the points of this moon, the turntables and percussion were ready to go at the hands of DJ Kilmore and Jose Pasillas. Situated behind them was a giant screen showing video footage during some of the songs.

The crowds, now hardly confinable, cheered loudly as Brandon Boyd took the stage and professed to them that everything moves in “Circles.” The song was quickly followed by “Nice To Know You,” a tune from the same album and an instrumental interlude leading slowly into the first song from Make Yourself, “Stellar.”

After the DJ-heavy and extremely well presented “Stellar,” the band played a just as musically detailed “Nebula,” one of the many rap-like songs from S.C.I.E.N.C.E., their 1997 release. It was one of the few old tunes the band performed on stage, to the disappointment of the die-hard fans.

Soon after, the stage setting changed to accommodate an acoustic performance. Two couches and a lamp were moved to the center of the stage, creating the feeling of a living room or a small coffee shop. As Boyd and guitarist Mike Einziger took the stage, the giant screen behind them zoomed in on Boyd’s expressive face as he sang “Mexico,” a ballad that revealed all his vocal talents.

After the two-person performance, the rest of the band joined Boyd and Einziger to perform the acoustic version of “Privilege,” which was followed with eight standard songs, mainly from Morning View and Make Yourself. Following their scheduled set, the band returned for a reprise, ending the show with “Aqueous Transmission,” which faded into frog sounds as the audience was slowly dispersing.

Playing for over an hour and a half, the band’s stamina was stunning. Not one of Boyd’s notes was misinterpreted, not one chord from Einziger or Dirk Lance, the bassist, was missed. With no errors, mishaps or false notes from any of the band members, the show was perfectly arranged from start to finish.

Contact Olga Robak atoracletunes@yahoo.com