Michael Franti and Spearhead at The Regent, St James

By REBECCA BARRY

It was Michael Franti, Spearhead and the "Rolling Stones" - the kidney stones that forced the band's Auckland gig back a day, cancelled their Wellington show and provided plenty of inter-song jocularity.

Who else but Franti could strum up a groove while narrating the excruciating passing of calcium balls "on tour" with him?

But he wasn't kidding when he said he gets people dancing so he can work on them. Crusading through a decade of Spearhead's hip-hop, funk, jazz and soul, he somehow got everyone grinning and grooving to lyrics that play on the conscience.

It was that thrilling combination of fun and foil in new songs What I Be and Everyone Deserves Music - with their ardent anti-war messages - that united Franti with the crowd. That, and the fact he had strolled through the masses as Katchafire warmed up the stage. When he plucked a girl from the foot of the stage to dance the salsa with him, and another to join him in a duet, he'd sealed the deal. "I could just hug him!" cried a fan in the row behind.

The six-piece rhythm section deserved just as much affection, as they jammed with phenomenal precision, building from the most sparse, tribal percussion through sterling solos to all-out rock climaxes.

The obligatory Bob Marley track made Spearhead's other musical inspirations all the more pointed as they cleverly slipped in the Clash, Nirvana and the Sound of Music.

But it was Radioactive, a human beatbox dressed head to toe in camo gear - "I'm a soldier too," he proclaimed - who gave the most thrilling performance.

After an outstanding medley of late-80s hip-hop staples, female vocal samples included, he threw an imaginary ping-pong ball at the wall and simulated the sound of it bouncing into the distance.

"It's so good to get out of America for a while," Franti repeated as the gig meandered into the night.

New tracks We Don't Stop and Crazy, Crazy, Crazy proved to be true and the only things remotely "right" about the gig were the clock hands which were suddenly pointing suspiciously in that direction.