Rocking beats from Kinky keep the crowd moving

Kinky is not a Latin rock band: It's a rock band, period. Now 10 years into a wildly successful career that has rippled far beyond its native Monterrey, Mexico, the electro-rock quintet is yet another example of how globalized music has become, how origins no longer dictate genre.

The band's audience, too, reflects a wide swath of folks from various races, ages, and backgrounds. With such a crowd three-quarters filling the venue Thursday, Kinky triumphed over a shaky start with the first few songs sabotaged by shoddy sound quality. Different effects on singer Gilberto Cerezo's vocals made it impossible to hear what he was saying.

Even worse, as a frontman he rarely worked the charisma that makes Kinky's albums such unabashed party soundtracks. His stage banter was restricted to exclamations - "Make some noise, Boston!" - but his supporting cast carried him through.

Ever the scene stealer, keyboardist Ulises Lozano, inexplicably sporting bandages on his nose and chin, yielded a mean accordion on hits such as "Sister Twisted." And bassist César Pliego, with instrument slung low like a rifle, duck-walked across the stage and rarely peered out from the shadow of his cowboy hat. Meanwhile, Omar Góngora worked double duty on drums and percussion, complementing Carlos Chairez's jagged guitar solos that cut right through the electronics to the heart of the matter.

With all that commotion, it was hard to decipher the lyrics, and usually you didn't need to. Kinky's lyrics run from incendiary ("Presidente") to incidental ("Coqueta"). "Más" simply needed its chorus - "Vamos queriendo más y más" ("We go wanting more and more") - to morph into a fist-pumping anthem. And when the words got in the way, the band simply dropped them. On the instrumental "Ejercicio," the quintet locked into a ferocious wall of sound, sending the audience into overdrive while receding into the groove, right where Kinky belongs.

In an odd pairing, local electro-rock sextet the Campaign for Real-Time opened with a strident set in which each band member vamped like a rock star. The songs were electric and driving, but they seemed highly disconnected from what was to come, never more evident than when singer Elton "The Wizard" Steel introduced the band. "Estamos Campaign for Real-Time," he said. Um, that should be "Somos Campaign for Real-Time," hombre.

James Reed can be reached at jreed@globe.com.