Captivating in full colorful credo, Big Mean Sound Machine is thunderously intricate. With as many as 11 musicians adding to the sound in a given show, BMSM's sound could be muddy, but it isn't. Since its inception in 2009 and multiple album releases later, BMSM has done a tight job at effective layering with ample space. Incredibly catchy drum and guitar lines often lay the entrance, like an impending storm — announced but minimal. Then spacey noodles and punchy fat brass fill in building into rain patterns, light accents, and thunderous pulses. The troupe grooves between afrobeat, funk, psychedelic, and experimental. The band is now touring off its 2014 release of tasty sound, "Contraband." Upward Groove and Subsoil also play.

Big Mean Sound Machine plays Friday, April 3, at Flour City Station, 170 East Avenue. 8 p.m. $10. flourcitystation.com; bigmeansoundmachine.com.