POP MUSIC REVIEW : Flowers Burst in Bloom With Rootsy Rock

Ireland’s Hothouse Flowers tore it up Thursday night at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, making their Orange County debut a memorable one with sizzling, rootsy rock played with the fervor of old-time revivalists.

Along the way, the five-man band from Dublin also tore apart and tossed away the stereotype that if a rocker speaks with a brogue, it must necessarily follow that he plays with the musical accent of U2.

As of its latest album, “Rattle and Hum,” U2 has moved toward the folk, blues and gospel influences that permeate Hothouse Flowers’ sound. But where U2’s roots rock attempts often sound labored, Hothouse Flowers sound born to the genre--much as Van Morrison and Rory Gallagher, Irish-rock precursors from the ‘60s, were able to sound like blues and R&B; naturals.

The main difference between U2’s roots exercises and Hothouse Flowers’ roots affirmations is in the rhythm sections. Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton of U2 sound as if they learned to play at military school; Hothouse Flowers’ drums-and-bass team, Jerry Fehily and Peter O’Toole, play with so much snap and swing that it seems that they must have studied at the feet of Memphis rhythm-and-blues masters.

Hothouse Flowers did sound like a number of other bands during the course of their 2-hour set before a full house. “Love Don’t Work This Way” had the jazzy, funky feel of vintage Traffic, while other pounding rave-ups (several of them new songs that didn’t appear on the Flowers’ 1988 debut album, “People”) bore the gospel-style imprint of Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen lineup, or of Elton John’s fine early ‘70s band hammering through “Burn Down the Mission.” At moments like those, Hothouse Flowers blossomed.

But the band also has a less engaging propensity for anthems and solemn ballads that carry a definite Springsteenian cast. While numbers such as “The Older We Get” and “Ballad of Katie” didn’t exactly wilt, the songwriting wasn’t strong enough to make them hit home.

The balladry was better when it came wrapped in simpler folk strains. A version of the haunting Irish song “She Moved Through the Fair” was a nod to Van Morrison, who recorded it on “Irish Heartbeat,” the excellent traditional album he recorded last year with the Chieftains. When the house sound system failed for a few minutes early in the show, the group turned the setback to its advantage when singer Liam O’Maonlai stepped into the crowd to lead a hootenanny sing-along. That broke the ice after a restrained opening.

While some of Hothouse Flowers’ 23 songs touched on darker themes such as poverty, emotional abandonment and environmental crises, the overall tone of the show was one of affirmation--not the self-conscious spiritual affirmations of U2 (although there was some of that), but the joyful affirmation that springs naturally from the music when a band is visibly enjoying itself on a hot night.