POP MUSIC REVIEW : LaBELLE WOWS WITH A NEW ATTITUDE

Patti LaBelle has so much lung power that her voice, if raised to the maximum shriek in a dark alley, could stop you colder than a snarling Doberman.

But it’s not just voice that makes her such a striking attraction at the Universal Amphitheatre, where her five-day engagement ends with a sold-out show on New Year’s Eve.

In fact, her singing isn’t her most effective weapon on stage. Despite being characterized for years as a rival for Aretha Franklin’s “Queen of Soul” title, LaBelle is not nearly as consistently convincing a vocal interpreter as Franklin.

LaBelle, whose first Top 40 hit was “I Sold My Heart to the Junkman” in 1962, has often settled for mediocre material and excessive vocal histrionics. There was more emotional overkill in LaBelle’s marathon three-hour performance last year at the intimate Beverly Theatre than in a week of soap operas.

So, what made her show work Friday night at the Amphitheatre?

For starters, the production is trimmed to a more manageable 90 minutes. The larger hall, too, provides everyone with more breathing space. Mainly, though, it’s her uplifting sense of show-biz bravado that works superbly in this length show.

Like Liza Minnelli or a less campy (and humor-minded) Bette Midler, LaBelle wows you with the gale-like force of her open, engaging personality.

Without the cloying self-consciousness of Diana Ross’ “reach out and touch” exhortations, LaBelle shares the stage in such a generous and freewheeling way that the audience all but becomes part of the evening’s cast.

She shared everything from a jeweled coat (letting fans in the front-row take turns wearing it during the show) to the microphone, which she gave to one fan who climbed on stage, while she danced with another fan who had joined them.

Noticing that her sleeve cuffs weren’t properly fastened after a costume change, she didn’t retreat to the wings so that an aide could fix them. She merely went to the edge of the stage and mentioned the problem. Volunteers raced to her assistance.

This constant interchange may sound distracting or condescending, but it all seems so natural that it underscores the basic, affirming message of her show: celebration of your individuality.

This woman is certainly an individual.

In the semi-darkness at the start of the show, Labelle--noted for outrageous hairstyles--has her hair stacked so high that she appears to have an aircraft carrier on her head. When she starts singing, she swoops around the stage, waving her arms like a bird about to take flight. And then there is that voice.

Here’s a singer blessed with such power and control that you hate to see her misuse it so much. The piano-delivered melody line that introduces John Lennon’s “Imagine,” for instance, captured the delicate, prayer-like feeling of the song better than LaBelle’s own anguished vocal. Similarly, her steamrolling version of “Born in the U.S.A.” sidestepped the real sentiments of Bruce Springsteen’s disheartened reflection on the country’s Vietnam involvement.

There were moments, however, when the aggressive style connected. Her vocal on this year’s high-stepping “New Attitude,” outpaces one of Aretha Franklin’s most delightful tracks in ages, “Freeway of Love,” and it should win her some Grammy nominations. And the a cappella version of the gospel standard “How Great Thou Art” was explosive and soulful.

While you’d like to see LaBelle reach these vocal peaks more regularly, we may just have to settle for what we now get. If the point of the songs sometimes get lost, her attitude--both during and between songs--tells enough of a story.