Fifth Nation appeared at Sullivan Hall on Friday night in their final New York show of their current circuit. This duo from Austin, Texas consists of Julia Richardson on vocals and guitar with Music Read on drums. Labeled as bringing together the sounds of jazz, blues, rock, soul, alternative and even hip-hop, I was interested to see a band which offered such a broad mix of styles.

Opening with their best known song, “Flight,” they initially seemed to have a pretty good sound. Richardson’s strong vocals provided good structure for this piece and Read’s solid drums as base kept this song on track.

Between songs, Richardson spoke of the bands ethos of love and peace, so I suppose I expected their music to perhaps veer into something a bit more hippy or psychadelic. It did not. Unfortunately, as the evening wore on, the performance went somewhat downhill. Not that this band is not talented, but they offered the audience a descent into wild vocal journeys where I felt that the music got completely lost, as Richardson let her voice wander and meander uncontrolled.

The two performers are a couple offstage as well as on, and chose to express their affection by making out as part of the performance – which started to feel a little weird, especially when we found ourselves into the third minute of watching them make out on stage. Uncomfortable shuffles abounded. Three minutes is a long time to watch strangers make out on stage, trust me on this.

Eventually they went back to the musical performance part of the evening and resumed with the pattern of uncontrollable vocals distracting from lyrics & music alike.

All in all, Richardson does have a powerful voice but her of lack of control, I feel, damages the performance and distracts from the messages of their lyrics and music.

Final verdict: An acquired taste.