POP MUSIC REVIEWS : AIR SUPPLY: NO PAUSES FOR BREADTH

Janis Joplin once said that she dreaded the prospect of becoming a living jukebox, grinding out prefab versions of her greatest hits. As things turned out, it was never much of a problem for her.

For a singles-oriented hit factory like Air Supply, however, the prospect may not seem all that bad. Opening a two-night run Wednesday at the Universal Amphitheatre, the group’s songwriting-singing duo of Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell displayed all the color, some of the charm and most of the predictability of a vintage Seeburg.

It would probably be foolish to expect anything else. The combination of Hitchcock’s bel canto tenor and Russell’s romance-novel ballads has been chart magic, and the concert revealed little desire to interfere with that magic.

Looking like a denim-clad younger version of Dudley Moore, Hitchcock soared through a familiar litany of Air Supply hits--”All Out of Love,” “The One That You Love,” “Here I Am,” “Even the Nights Are Better.” And, given the group’s intent, they varied hardly at all from the recorded versions--which suited the loud, supportive audience just fine.

Several new, unreleased songs sounded much like Air Supply’s older songs, with “My Life, Your Touch” bearing all the earmarks of another hit single. Only a rousing rocker titled “Stand Up” threatened to mar the image of Hitchcock and Russell as pop’s most successful purveyors of romance rock.