Pop Capsules : Christian Rocker Taylor Serious About His Satire

Steve Taylor is a gifted songwriter who never met a sly satire he didn’t like. The Christian rocker opened his impressive set Saturday night at the Universal Amphitheatre with a rockin’ psychoanalysis salvo titled “Jung and the Restless.”

But don’t let that punny business fool you. As with any good satirist, Taylor has serious things on his mind--even if his way of saying them leaves him, like Randy Newman, sometimes open to misinterpretation by the casual listener. And in the same way that the lanky singer scooted all over the stage, Taylor covered considerable ground lyrically, receiving strong, sleek (occasionally slick) support from his five-piece band.

If Taylor keeps doing shows like that and making albums like his current “I Predict 1990” LP, one guesses that concert attendance--sparse Saturday--won’t be a problem for long. The Choir preceded Taylor with a batch of moody soundscapes, loaded with atmospheric textures riding atop galloping, propulsive-pop rhythms.