No Velvet Touch Here

Lou Reed seems to have taken to heart the recent, long-overdue Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction of his old band the Velvet Underground.

In his first Southern California appearance since that January ceremony, the veteran singer-songwriter, whose daring and provocative music has influenced everyone from U2 to R.E.M., came on stage at the Wiltern Theatre on Monday like a rock ‘n’ roll Rambo.

For most of the two-hour set, he and his three-piece band played with such force that the drum licks alone frequently hit with the rapidity and force of assault weapons.

It was a fabulously energizing affair for a while as Reed, playing guitar with disarming relish, unleashed this instrumental fury on songs that ranged through his ‘70s and ‘80s material and reached all the way back to the Velvets’ “Sweet Jane” and “Waiting for the Man.”

Rather than launch into each song, Reed and the band (bassist Fernando Saunders, drummer Tony Smith and guitarist Mike Rathke) spent several seconds, or sometimes even minutes, warming up instrumentally, as if searching for the precise emotional wavelength.

Ultimately, however, Reed gave us only one side of himself.

In his last two albums, 1992’s brilliant “Magic and Loss,” a meditation on the deaths of two friends, and the new “Set the Twilight Reeling,” a wonderfully revealing self-inventory, Reed is up close and personal in warm and enchanting ways.

Who would have figured, for instance, that the man who once captivated us with anxious tales of heroin and walks on the wild side would end up a quarter century later toasting the joys of egg cream and true love?

Though he played several songs from the new album, the arrangements were generally so hard-edged that you lost much of the graceful, evocative elements of the material.

Reed, 54, seemed ready to share that intimacy half an hour into the set when he picked up an acoustic guitar and began the new album’s title song.

“Take me for what I am,” he sang, tellingly, at the start of the song, a moving expression of personal transformation. “I accept the newfound man . . . ,” he adds at one point.

Near the end of the song, however, Reed returned to electric guitar and the fury, squashing any chance for a softer, more unguarded segment.

There were occasional moments of gentleness, including the sweet soul serenade of “Hang On to Your Emotions” (with its beautiful image of a city’s night breeze across the bedroom and the sound of a lover’s breath) and “Trade In” (an exquisite commentary on personal growth and unexpected blessings).

Mostly, however, Reed was into a harder sound, perhaps wanting to celebrate the joys in his life now that some of the darkness and mourning have passed. By any measure, he is a valuable and enriching artist. With less assault, however, he would have been a more complete one Monday.

Luna, the opening act, is just the band you’d want to book for a Velvet Underground appreciation society meeting. The group leans toward a stark, minimalist style reminiscent of the Velvets, and could surely do a mean “Sweet Jane” or “Waiting for the Man.” The band set the mood nicely for Reed with its own songs, but didn’t assert the edge you need to be remembered on a night you are sharing the bill with a rock master.