The Heavy, 92Y Tribeca, NY

is a charismatic performer and an unquestionably talented singer. The Heavy’s frontman has a vast vocal range that can turn on a dime from a Curtis Mayfield croon to an all-out Little Richard scream. It’s unfortunate, then, that the band’s musical range isn’t nearly as wide; despite the inclusion of material from new album ‘The House That Dirt Built’, most of the pieces essentially feel like a rehashing of the rock/hip-hop/soul blend that made ‘That Kind Of Man’ a breakout hit on their first album.

The band play without keyboardist Hannah Collins, necessitating the unfortunate presence of a laptop beside drummer Chris Ellul’s kit. Regardless, the attention is on Swaby for the full set, interrupted only by a brief vocal turn by guitarist Dan Taylor on ‘Love Like That’ in which he looks pretty uncomfortable sharing the spotlight. Swaby shakes, bellows, and growls his way through upbeat numbers such as ‘What You Want Me To Do?’, ‘That Kind of Man’, and ‘Colleen’, elicits crowd participation on ‘Big Bad Wolf’ and even slides briefly into The Kinks’ ‘All Day And All Of The Night’. With a similar high-energy soul vibe reigning through most of the pieces, the show’s highlights come during the few times the band adopts a different sound: ‘Cause for Alarm’, a reggae track on which Swaby’s voice channels Massive Attack’s Robert del Naja, and ‘Brukpocket’s Lament’, a slow number that tips its hat to Led Zeppelin’s ‘Dazed and Confused’.