Jaxx DJs Get (Relatively) Elaborate

If a fan at one of Madonna’s concerts had climbed onstage and started dancing, it probably would have been easy to tell that he wasn’t really part of the show.

When an audience member found his way onstage at Basement Jaxx’s show Tuesday at the Mayan Theatre, it was quite possible to think he was part of the show--at least until he was gently escorted off.

There wasn’t that much distinction between his spontaneous, amateur appearance and the planned professional work of the several people accompanying the English dance-music duo on its current tour.

That’s not to denigrate the talents of dancer De De Costa or the three singers working with the Brixton-based Jaxx (Simon Ratliffe and Felix Buxton). But the buzz in dance music circles that this was quite the elaborate production may have been a bit overdoing it.

Of course, everything is relative, and expectations for live dance-music presentations remain rather low.

Compared with the basic DJ sets the Jaxx had brought over before, this was a colorful, elaborate presentation, with Costa (in several carnival and tribal-themed outfits) and singers Sharlene Hector, Mandy Senior and Cassie Watson, and vibrant video projections expressing the equal measures of joy and substance that mark the act’s disco-worshiping electronic house-garage-punk varieties.

Not surprisingly, the live presentation emphasized the beat over the more subtle, inventive mixes of the new “Rooty” album, although several songs subtly using Latin and Iberian textures provided an enticing thread, even if the thump and volume of “Get Me Off” rendered it shrill rather than sexy.

Hector was in particularly dynamic disco-diva mode belting the opening “Romeo” and the climactic “Do Your Thing,” renewing the classic disco theme of personal liberation.

But for all that, the core of the act remains two guys behind consoles--two guys who could use more moments such as Buxton’s winningly punky vocal on “Where’s Your Head At” and Ratliffe’s guitar work on two songs.

He proved that it’s not all about sampling and sequencing, but that he can actually play-just like Madonna!