Take a shot of musical Morphine at the Huntridge

Mark Sandman sounds very drowsy, as if he just woke up. In fact, he may just have, as he confesses that noon is his usual wake-up time on most days. But that after-hours voice is entirely appropriate, since Sandman is a musician who lives up to his last name.

As front man for the Boston group Morphine (a name derived, of course, from Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams and sleep), Sandman takes listeners into a nocturnal world that's seductive and hypnotic: a distinctive, groove-laden musical narcotic that will transfix fans at the Huntridge Performing Arts Theater on Saturday.

The Boston trio -- consisting of Sandman on vocals and two-string slide bass, Dana Colley on saxophone and Billy Conway on drums -- defies easy categorization. Despite Colley's bluesy sax riffs, the band really isn't jazz, but lacking guitars it doesn't easily conform to rock either. Morphine's songs inhabit a twilight place filled with cool characters in smoky bars, dirges that sound sexy and ironic, midnight musings.

Sandman shrugs and simply says: "We call it low-rock.

"It started out with just me and Dana," Sandman continues. "I had my two-string bass -- really a one-string at the time -- and he had his sax and we knew each other. We sort of spontaneously started playing these instruments together. We heard something in there, and we decided to come up with a name and get a drummer and try a show and see what would happen."

Formed in 1990, Morphine started as just another gig in the Boston music scene. "The first show was real low-key," Sandman, who had already been in a bluesy alternative band called Treat Her Right, recalls. "We were the first band on a five-band bill, and the audience was just a random cross section of Cambridge types. There was a lot of variety, from skate kids to ancient alcoholics. We didn't bring the house down or anything, but the response was encouraging."

Morphine quickly became a fixture of the Boston band scene, a scene that Sandman says is more about making music than about trying to become rock stars. "There are no labels in Boston," Sandman explains. "It seems to cut down on the number of 'get a contract' bands, bands that try to develop a sound they think they can sell rather then building a following. You don't have the suits lurking in the back of clubs. It seems like people are more relaxed about taking a chance and trying something different because they have the freedom to fail.

"And Morphine was just one of many things we were all doing around town. It could have easily been a one-off show. Actually, it was awhile before we realized it was getting bigger than our so-called 'real' projects," Sandman says, chuckling. "It's your basic experiment run amok."

In 1991, Morphine recorded its first album, which the band members released themselves. The disc was quickly picked up by the national Rykodisc label, and was followed by "Cure for Pain" (1993), "Yes" (1995) and "Like Swimming" (1997), which was co-released by Rykodisc and the band's new label, DreamWorks.

Along the way, Morphine built a strong cult following and earned critical accolades. Five songs from "Cure for Pain" formed the soundtrack to the film "Spanking the Monkey," and its music has been used in the films "Get Shorty," "Beautiful Girls" and "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead." The band has toured extensively without the benefit of commerical radio play, although "Like Swimming" did receive some brief rotation from some stations.

"We haven't had any big radio hits, so no one was shocked when we didn't have any on this record," Sandman says, 'although a lot of people really wanted it (to happen). But that wasn't our focus. We were just trying to get the songs down, make them sound good.

"Luckily, we get a lot of play on college radio, where the real music junkies are. We've been able to tour without it (commerical radio); which might be an advantage, because we've developed a high-quality audience."

Part of what makes the band so distinctive is Sandman's trademark two-string bass, a sound that Sandman created himself through experimentation.

"I just tried adapting regular basses and guitars through trial and error -- mostly error," Sandman says. "What I do now -- the solutions are so incredibly simple -- is something that I can't really tell people how I do. It took me five years to figure it out, and it's something I could explain in five minutes. But I'm not anxious for people to copy it. Besides, if I leave it vague and somebody really wants to know what strings I'm using or how I tune it, all they have to do is pick up a bass and play along with the record. In the process, they'll probably come up with a sound they like better anyway."

Sandman's lyrics are distinctive too: witty narratives about broken dreams, erotic whimsies, late-night betrayals and miscommunications. His songs move in tone from the sexy "Whisper" ("Don't worry I'm not looking at you/gorgeous and dressed in blue") to the bitterly optimistic "Cure for Pain" ("Someday there'll be a cure for pain/that's the day I throw my drugs away") to the heartbreaking "Gone for Good" ("Never going to meet you outside your door and feel you fall into my arms/Never going to see you again").

"Yeah, that one ('Gone for Good') even makes me sad," Sandman chuckles, wryly. "I like to write narratives. They're pretty imaginary, but they're usually inspired by something in real life."

Since this is Morphine's first concert in Las Vegas, Sandman muses about a lyric change for the gambling song "Have a Lucky Day":

"I should say 'I'm on a bus to Las Vegas' instead of 'Atlantic City,' " he jokes, "although that will probably screw up the meter."

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