POP MUSIC REVIEW : NEW KNACK ATTACK MISFIRES AT THE ROXY

Ready for the Knack attack, Part II?

As the controversial rock band returned to the Los Angeles club scene that launched it almost a decade ago, a capacity crowd at the Roxy on Sunday night seemed eager for a comeback. There was even an underdog quality about the band, which once vaulted to the pop charts with its driving, lecherous teen hit “My Sharona,” only to quickly become an industry joke because of what appeared to be excessive hype and arrogance.

After a four-year hiatus, the reconstituted group exhibited an enthusiasm and even humility that suggested these guys are thankful for a second chance. The music, too, seemed encouraging at the start: a playful version of the instrumental oldie “Tequila” that segued into the Doors’ “Break on Through.”

This opening promised a mix of the power-pop exuberance of the Knack’s old songs with a darker, more mature perspective gained from the rough times that followed the group’s brief success.

Unfortunately, little in the rest of the show supported that first impression. The no-frills playing of the original quartet (augmented by a guitarist/keyboardist) was as fresh as ever, but the old songs--though welcomed heartily by the crowd--seemed hopelessly dated, and new songs failed to break new ground.

The nadir came during lead singer Doug Fieger’s mid-song digression in “My Sharona”--a move that was not only embarrassingly misogynistic (even less becoming now that the band’s older), but boring.

Local quintet Agent X opened the show with a misbegotten attempt to mix power-pop melodies with pseudo-heroic lyrics and heavy-metalish kid-appeal without demonstrating a flair for much of anything.