By Chris Varias
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati went jam-band crazy last week.

There were those Phish shows at U.S. Bank Arena over the weekend and the consequent hippie-enticing club and theater after-shows all around town. Then there was the Tuesday-night performance by Chris Robinson at Bogart's, in which the Black Crowes vocalist indulged his jam-boogie fantasies in two Phish-sized sets.

The festivities concluded back at Bogart's Wednesday night on a funky note with Galactic.

Maybe it's the jam burnout talking, but a funk band, especially a New Orleans funk band, should deliver a bigger wallop than what Galactic put forth.

New Orleans boasts strong traditions of funk, R&B, soul, jazz and rock `n' roll, all of which Galactic incorporates into its music. But the group is most indebted to the tradition of jamming. Galactic kept everything hippie-tempo danceable in a way no other New Orleans act has ever done.

The instrumentals had their exciting moments, but they were outnumbered by lightweight, light-funk passages - something a bit more muscular than smooth jazz. The Meters they ain't.

The group - bassist Robert Mercurio, drummer Stanton Moore, guitarist Jeff Raines, keyboardist Rich Vogel and saxophonist Ben Ellman - seemed more interested in catering to the crowd's party-band desires than in creating something challenging.

You have to wonder about a New Orleans funk band who for the benefit of its audience covers the Beastie Boys' "Root Down," which is basically a song created by New Yorkers trying to play like a real New Orleans funk band.

Galactic, who played two hour-long sets plus a two-song encore, was slightly more engaging when in the company of its sixth member, singer Theryl de Clouet, who joined the group for a few songs in each set.

The band's finest moment was their last, and de Clouet was present for it and integral to it. It was an out-of-left-field cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Saturday Night Special," which only made sense given de Clouet's anti-war talk to begin the encore and the song's anti-gun message. The performance recalled the Temptations discovering psychedelia and reaffirmed Ronnie Van Zant's legacy as one soulful dude.

E-mail cvarias@enquirer.com