Pop Music Reviews : Reunited Hall, Oates--One Career Is Better Than Two

If Daryl Hall and John Oates took their recently terminated three-year split from their fabulously successful partnership in order to unclog creative pores, there wasn’t much to show for it Saturday at the Universal Amphitheatre. Hall (still the act’s tall, blond, sexy lead singer/frontman/ raison d’etre ) and Oates (still, well, the other guy) gave a largely predictable performance in the first show of a four-night stand that continues Tuesday and Wednesday.

Predictably, Hall and Oates and their six-man band played lotsa the hits that made them famous and lotsa selections from the fairly mediocre new “Ooh Yeah!” LP. Also predictably, it was the older stuff that worked best, especially the ‘70s takes on smooth Philly soul for which Hall’s voice is best suited.

Only once, on a largely acoustic “Every Time You Go Away” (a Hall-written smash for English singer Paul Young), did they show the charisma to justify their status as the top-selling duo of all time. The rest of the show they looked as if they lacked the interest and courage to let down the star’s mask. Could that be why they abandoned the challenges of separate careers to return to the ease, comfort and lucre of the partnership?