POP MUSIC REVIEWS : A HEALTHIER REDD KROSS CELEBRATES ‘NEUROTICA’

By now Redd Kross has become something of a local underground institution, though that’s not to say that these four teen brats need to be institutionalized. Still, this quartet bordered on the terminally wacky Thursday at the Whisky on the first of two nights celebrating the release of the group’s new album, “Neurotica.”

With an acoustic interlude incorporating a chanted tribute to former Rolling Stone Mick Taylor (set to Toni Basil’s “Mickey”), the worst of psychedelic thrift-store wear and parodies of rock’s most ridiculous poses, one might assume that Redd Kross is Los Angeles’ best rock ‘n’ roll joke.

But the band also exhibited growth--brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald actually sing into the microphones now and the band’s once-notorious endless tuning sessions were gone--and there was a new tightness and power in the band’s brand of thrash-flash. Thursday there was a method behind the madness, a dedication to capturing the pure spirit of innocent, joyous fun that rock ‘n’ roll was supposed to be about in the first place.

In an age when too many bands base their music either on calculated career moves or heavy-handed pretentions, Redd Kross is as breezy as a kiss in the wind, a band born to rock in a world that forgot how.