POP MUSIC REVIEW : TOO LITTLE DAREDEVILRY FROM ‘SAINT’ JULIAN

Julian Cope may be calling his upcoming album “Saint Julian,” but Sunday night at Club Lingerie he committed a cardinal sin by making the crowd wait nearly two hours before coming on stage. Though the former leader of Liverpool’s post-psychedelic band Teardrop Explodes then delivered an entertaining set of journeys to the center of his psyche, in the end it wasn’t really worth the wait.

That’s not to say that Cope isn’t a talented, original songwriter and an intriguing performer. He proved to be both Sunday, with energetic, melodic tunes wrapped around slightly skewed subject matter, plus a resemblance to Iggy Pop in appearance and mannerisms (a favorite trick was to climb simian-like on a specially constructed microphone stand).

But at the same time he was never overwhelmingly dynamic, exceedingly charismatic nor amazingly clever. There are those who travel in the same part of the pop universe--notably Robyn Hitchcock--who are consistently all three. With Hitchcock there is a unique vision that gives even his most stream-of-consciousness ramblings a complex internal logic that can be at once hilarious and revelatory. At best, Cope’s observations on life and love seemed merely witty and peculiar.

On the other hand, Cope and his solid if unspectacular four-piece band rocked convincingly on the likes of the current radio demi-hit “World Shut Your Mouth” and a version of Pere Ubu’s “Non-Alignment Pact,” while giving such lyrical fare as the upcoming album’s title song effectively delicate, brittle treatment.

The Bel-Fires’ opening set showed the local quartet moving away from U2/Pretenders leanings into less derivative and more interesting territory.