HUMAN ELEMENT

When dance-music groups perform live they face the danger of withering under the extra attention the concert setting focuses on songs designed to motivate denizens of discos. But Club Nouveau deftly sidestepped that trap on Friday at the new 2,500-seat Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim.

By relying on energetic choreography and theatrics as well as snappy--if occasionally corny--repartee about love and relationships, the Sacramento sextet injected a welcome human element into the extended synthesizer-and-drum-machine grooves of “Lean on Me,” “Jealousy,” “Situation 9” and other songs off its debut album, “Life, Love & Pain.”

Singer and group founder Jay King produced Timex Social Club’s 1985 hit “Rumors,” so not surprisingly Club Nouveau also reprised that hit, but also demonstrated more longevity potential than its novelty-rap predecessor. This was largely due to Nouveau’s more inventively structured songs and, especially, to Valerie Watson’s soaring, Patti LaBelle-like vocal power, which both complemented and offset the sing-rap deliveries of King and Samuelle Porter.

In stark contrast, the music of opening act the System, much like the revolving stage on which both groups performed, often appeared to be in motion but never covered much ground. Both groups were also scheduled to play the Universal Amphitheatre on Saturday