TONIO OK

Tonio K. seems like a real nice guy. Sure, he wears sunglasses and assumes a sort of streetwise, sardonic stance, but Mr. K. seems like the kind of person you could invite over to Christmas dinner. He might make a naughty joke or two, but he’s never offensive.

Headlining the Roxy Friday, K. displayed a gruff voice in the Springsteen-Graham Parker mode, crafty songwriting and beautiful support from a crackerjack quartet. Though avowedly born-again, K. was hardly an evangelist as he humorously examined the nature of faith with songs like “I Handle Snakes.” His lyrics are the kind of ironic, real-life observations that made Bob Dylan and Lou Reed famous, but K. can’t quite make their league because he never stretches beyond his boundaries. With a more demanding personality, and with music that defies its expectations instead of predictably meeting them, this Tonio could become one special K.