She could have let the music do the talking, but she went ahead anyway and addressed the subject halfway through her set. And she did so succinctly.

        “Music,” opined Nikka Costa, “is either good or (expletive).”

        Perhaps white artists playing traditionally black music feel they must explain themselves. But Ms. Costa proved at Bogart's Monday night she has nothing to apologize for: her take on R&B and funk is far from expletive.

        The singer proved first and foremost to be a performer. Sometimes the words and the enunciation were lost in an otherwise exciting act, replete with banshee shrieks, knee drops and slithery dancing. But it wasn't as much about her voice, which by the way is fine, as it was about the entire package.

        With her hip-hugger pants, her long and wavy hair and her flowing shirt sleeves — each made of enough material to tent an entire Webelo troop — she looked like a circa 1976 Robert Plant with womanly curves, less the hairy gut.

        And she fronted her band with Plant-like bravado. Her six-man crew plus two girl singers provided Ms. Costa with simpatico accompaniment. They were neither stiff hacks or slick pros — they were a shaggy-looking collection playing cohesively but with enough earthy looseness to make the crowd feel it was experiencing something wild and new.

        As is the case with other acts where energy and the music are the chief concerns, the songwriting was a bit lacking. The most memorable tunes, besides the powerhouse set-ending title track from her album Everybody Got Their Something, were covers — Sly and the Family Stone's “Thank You” and the encore of Stevie Wonder's “Jesus Children of America.”

        She also played “Push & Pull,” a song that found its way onto the soundtrack for Blow along with classic tunes by Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and Cream. Ms. Costa's father is a big-time music-biz mover and shaker, and she ends up as the only new artist on that soundtrack. Forget defending your music; let's hear an explanation for getting a cut on that album.

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