KETTLE OF METAL

Y&T; has head-banged around the metal circuit for several years without coming within striking distance of a breakthrough. The Bay Area group’s show Saturday at the Wiltern showed why. Basically, the band is dreadful! The foursome scooted around the stage with calculated spontaneity while playing clumsy, distended blowouts. Yet another band that probably thought “This Is Spinal Tap” was a straight documentary.

Second-billed Ace Frehley’s Comet proved to be a whole different kettle of metal. Fronted by former Kiss guitarist Frehley, the quartet hit the stage with an energetic fury that rarely waned. Considering the cartoonish, nothing-succeeds-like-excess orientation of Frehley’s previous band, Comet turned out to be a surprisingly song-oriented unit, generally sidestepping the stuff that’s heavy-handed, redundant, or just plain stoopid.

Local glamsters Faster Pussycat opened the show with a set that was typically long on posing and prancing and short on songs or chops. How the quintet landed a record deal after less than a year together is a mystery; it’s certainly a case of too little too soon.