Charlie Hunter is a phenomenal guitarist with the distinctive ability to play fluid bass lines with his thumbs while picking complex leads and rhythms on a custom seven-string guitar.

When his new trio took the stage at Alley Katz Thursday, Oct. 5, at 9:30 p.m., it was 90 minutes after the advertised start. But all memory of the delay was swept away by a marathon, two-and-a-half-hour, two-set Performance that kept the audience — including many local musicians — spellbound.

The band drew much of its material from its recent “Copperopolis” CD, with detours into “Amazing Grace” and kaleidoscopic snippets of other songs, delivering a performance that revolved around structured free associations and the many ways of subdividing a backbeat.

Hunter never lingers with one idea long, ranging through tones and textures electronically expanded by the jumble of pedals and effect boxes he controls with his feet. His fondness for the wah-wah gives his solos a classic ’60s patina.

Hunter’s sharply focused attack is the balance point for the contrasting styles of his new sidemen, the extroverted drummer Simon Lott and poetic keyboard player Erik Deutsch. Lott attacked the set with loose-limbed enthusiasm, smiling with surprise when his sticks delivered an unpredictable bit of cleverness from the rhythmic cascade.