ralph.berrier@roanoke.com 981-3338

Incubus played it cool - and not just because a sheet of ice covered the Roanoke Civic Center floor.

With the civic center all frosty and ready for this weekend's exhibition hockey game, throngs of young people huddled together and did their best hockey imitations by body-checking one another as hard-rock heroes Incubus skated through its musical playbook Thursday night.

Naturally, the wintry chill did not deter uninhibited lead singer Brandon Boyd from peeling his shirt about midway through the show. That's what he does - sings, occasionally plays guitar and sheds clothes like autumn leaves.

Unlike the band's last appearance in Roanoke two years ago, Incubus stripped away the frills, video screens and funky arrangements of familiar songs in favor of a straight-ahead rock show with a few twists. Also unlike the band's last appearance, only 3,420 paying customers showed up, about half the number from the 2002 show.

Its latest album, "A Crow Left of the Murder," hasn't proved as popular as 2002's "Morning View," but the fellows had plenty of hits to unleash. After a spacey opening of gurgling effects that sounded like Space Invaders on acid, Incubus ripped through "Pistola" followed immediately by the rock-radio favorite, "Nice to Know You." The front-loaded set included "Wish You Were Here" and a version of "Stellar" that stumbled clunkily and unnecessarily into a verse and chorus of the Police classic "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da."

A loungy rendition of the megahit "Drive" and the new song "Priceless" led into an extended drum solo from Jose Pasillas. Then came the inevitable series of lesser-known songs that included "Crowded Elevator" and "Sick Sad Little World" before a raucous finale of "Megalomaniac." Boyd began the three-song encore with the unreleased "Pantomime," before finishing with "Southern Girl" and "Pardon Me."

Frizzy-haired guitarist Mike Einziger filled in several between-song spaces with watery guitar lines and shrill, feedback-laced screeches. The numerous electronic effects were about the only surprises from a band that usually chocks its shows full of unexpected arrangements. Thursday's show lacked some of the spontaneity we heard two years ago, when the band tore apart some its best songs and creatively reconstructed them in acoustic forms.

Up-and-coming throwback rocker Ben Kweller opened with 30 minutes of new stuff that mixed everything from Beatles-like melodies to punk thrash. The shaggy Kweller reveled in classic-sounding '70s power pop, bringing to mind Weezer's Rivers Cuomo caught in a time warp.