FOR GENERAL PUBLIC, THE BEAT GOES ON . . . SORT OF

General Public’s concert Friday at the Universal Amphitheatre revealed a band that is easier to evaluate in terms of what it is not rather than what it is.

It is not the English Beat, the thinking person’s dance band from which it developed. Make no mistake: General Public put on quite an entertaining show. This band’s songs demonstrate talent, intelligence and creativity, but its lineage leads one to believe that it is capable of even better.

The problem with General Public is that it does not exert a strong identity of its own. Founders/lead singers Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger front this group as they did the Beat, bringing with them considerable personality, especially Roger, a virtual perpetual motion machine. General Public’s arrangements, though, while appealingly egalitarian--none of the seven musicians ever hogs the spotlight--seem less colorful than they could be.

The best General Public material is sharp, crisp and rhythmically playful, picking up on the advances the Beat had made from its “two-tone” ska beginnings. The shifting tempos of “Are You Leading Me On,” the relatively straight reggae of “Anxious” and the powerful funk of “Burning Bright” highlighted the concert as much as the group’s 1984 debut album, “All the Rage,” with the music equaled by hard-edged lyrics.

However, the group’s more pop-oriented songs, including last year’s hit “Tenderness,” is far less interesting--pleasant and danceable, but fluff. General Public’s mainstream talents are not as distinct or fully realized as, say, Madness, another band that grew from the English two-tone scene.

On stage, though, stripped of studio gimmickry, General Public’s material came off stronger than on record. The handful of new songs previewed showed the same strengths and weaknesses.

Actually, General Public gives little indication that it wants to escape the Beat’s shadow.

The 100-minute set included three of the old group’s songs and the current General Public lineup features Beat elder statesman/ saxophonist Saxa. But if Wakeling and Roger don’t want General Public to be a distinct entity, why did they leave the Beat in the first place?