MP3 LIVE: Morcheeba finds The Antidote

Beset by all sorts of turmoil since the release of its fifth studio album, UK trip-rockers trudge on and deliver impressive show at San Francisco's Fillmore.

SAN FRANCISCO--You play the hand you're dealt.

Morcheeba guitarist Ross Godfrey is neck-deep in that cliché right now as he takes his 10-year-old trip-rock band on a concert tour across the US.

The six-piece outfit breezed into The Fillmore Wednesday night having endured a career's worth of changes in just the past few months.

It all started last year when lead singer Skye Edwards, whose sultry, melt-in-your-ears vocal stylings were the band's driving force since its 1996 debut, Who Can You Trust, decided to leave for a solo career.

But brothers and band founders Ross and Paul Godfrey viewed the departure as an opportunity to push the band in a different direction, and the September release of The Antidote unveiled a new singer, Daisy Martey, and a broader sonic palette.

But as the band set out for a US tour in support of the album, Martey and the Godfreys had an unspecified falling out, with Ross Godfrey posting, "Daisy will not sing with us again," on the band's Web site.

They quickly went to plan B and brought on Jody Sternberg, a singer and sax player who took over lead duties on the fly with minimal rehearsal time. Right before the US tour, Paul Godfrey ran into "visa issues" and was unable to accompany the band on the tour, nearly pushing the whole escapade into Spinal Tap-level parody.

Given all that, Jody Sternberg could be forgiven for looking like she was having an occasional James Stockdale ("Who am I? Why am I here?") moment early in Wednesday night's show.

But all of the turmoil may have been a blessing for longtime fans. Because Sternberg's voice is much more aligned with Edwards than Martey, Morcheeba dug deeper than expected into its back catalog, particularly the bong-water beats and psychedelic blues so prevalent on Who Can You Trust.

And after a few shaky turns on the band's 1998 hit, "Part of the Process," Sternberg seemed to get more comfortable on stage and added a whole new flair to the set with her flute and saxophone skills.

Godfrey, a fantastic blues guitarist without much else to lean on this night, was in fine form.

The packed house loved it, and several songs built into the frenzied psychedelic crescendos of the band's late '90s heyday.