Stanford Prison Experiment Pounds Out Message

Stanford Prison Experiment is a local outfit with a leftist political agenda that delivered its message Saturday at the Troubadour in a relentless attack of punk pique and chunky, vitriol-fueled guitars.

Though there’s nothing wrong with a spare evening of hard and angry music, all the uncut fury can become repetitive, and the show ultimately begged for an extra edge of excitement or levity. This requirement was almost filled by the focal point of the band, singer Mario Jimenez, a shaved-headed and tightly wired presence. Jimenez’s rubbery performance was almost entertaining enough, but in the end felt militaristic and only prompted a halfhearted mini-mosh pit.

That’s too bad, because this is an important time for the respected underground group, which was named for an academic study of prison and power roles and whose first major-label album, “Wrecreation,” was released early this year. Throughout this set, the group poked at corporate greed and described scrambling for a scrap of dignity at the bottom of the capitalist food chain. This well-traveled territory might be part of the problem, though.

After all, the highlight of the show came in the form of a simply confused, snarling power-pop number called “Compete.” More vulnerable than tough, the song underscored the fact that rock is generally better at asking the gut-wrenching questions than it is at hollering out the answers.