POP / THOMAS K. ARNOLD : After 15 Years, DeVille Still Chasing Star Status

With his bushy black pompadour and frail build, he looks like an emaciated Elvis. With his gravelly voice, brimming with emotion as he snarls and screams, sobs and soothes, he sounds like a white James Brown.

Like The King, Willy DeVille--appearing tonight at the Bacchanal nightclub in Kearny Mesa--is the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll sex symbol. He’s flashy and debonair, yet hopelessly camp.

And like Mr. Show Business himself, DeVille’s vocal delivery teeters between the impassioned urgency of a backwoods preacher and the heart-rending poignancy of a lovesick Romeo.

Accordingly, his songs run the gamut from proud attestations to his own machismo (“Spanish Stroll,” “Lipstick Traces”) to introspective admissions of his underlying vulnerability (“Just to Walk That Little Girl Home,” “You Just Keep Hanging On”).

With so much going for him, it’s difficult to fathom why DeVille isn’t a superstar. After 15 years of shooting for the stars, he remains a commercial outlaw, relentlessly striving to put back into rock ‘n’ roll the bump and the grind, the heart and the soul.

The root of the problem seems to be that when DeVille and his band, Mink DeVille, first caught the public eye in the middle 1970s, they were mistakenly grouped with a half dozen or so other New York punk bands introduced to the rest of the world via the ‘Live at CBGB’s’ sampler album.

In those days, punk was still anathema to radio, and being labeled a punk band--even though they weren’t--proved a burden to Mink DeVille. Their debut album, released in 1977, was a flop, and though eventually they managed to shed the punk stigma, by then it was too late to regain the lost momentum.

In last Thursday’s Reader newspaper, promoter Bill Silva took out a full-page ad for his upcoming San Diego concerts. But instead of listing the shows, as he’s done in the past, Silva chose a new approach: a rambling monologue in which he discussed--ad infinitum and, at times, ad nauseam--both the acts and the venues.

Silva shared the fact that Stikitty, a “hot new band” from Los Angeles, was brought to his attention by “my hipster young talent scout, Larry.” The first time “Larry” saw Stikitty, Silva said, he “got a you-know-what from watching them.”

The loquacious promoter also offered his “humble opinion” of other recent bookings like Midge Ure (“this guy’s a legend!”), Edie Brickell (“she’s got a great vibe about her”) and Queensryche (“they’re the nicest guys in the rock business”).

Silva had plenty of kind words as well for the venues into which he regularly books shows. He’s “so stoked on the Starlight Bowl (that) I defy anyone to find a more aesthetically pleasing location, or a place with better acoustics. . . .

“And don’t worry about the planes that fly about a mile away from the venue,” Silva added. “You can see them, but with the amplified music, you definitely can’t hear them.”

The Soma dance club in downtown, Silva continued, is “a pretty hot little place, too . . . and the crowd is clean and cool.”

“We only book great shows,” Silva concluded. “It must just be our advertising that stinks when we don’t sell them out.”

If that’s the case, Silva would be well advised to rethink his strategy a second time.

LINER NOTES: Iguanas, in Tijuana’s Pueblo Amigo shopping center, is the first concert showcase nightclub in the San Diego area for the under-21 crowd (thanks to Mexico’s lower drinking age of 18). The grand opening has been set for May 18, with a show by teen heartthrob Stevie B. But at this weekend’s sneak preview of the not-quite-finished club, early birds can cross the border and catch punk-metal band Jane’s Addiction on Friday night and veteran new-wavers the Fixx on Saturday. . . .

Also on Saturday, the Temptations--perhaps the most successful of the 1960s Motown soul groups--will be appearing at the newly built Del Mar Plaza shopping center in a $100-per-ticket benefit concert for Casa de Amparo, a nonprofit shelter for children who are victims of physical or sexual abuse. The black-tie fund-raising event will be held outdoors on the Plaza’s upper deck. . . .

Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. for two upcoming shows at San Diego State University’s Open Air Theater: pop comic Sam Kinison, May 31, and the June 24 WAVE Summerfest, featuring New Agers Michael Tomlinson, Suzanne Ciani, David Lanz and David Arkenstone. Five hours later, at 3 p.m., tickets go on sale for heavy metal bands Cinderella and Winger’s June 3 concert at the San Diego Sports Arena. And on Saturday at 10 a.m., tickets go on sale for techno-pop heavyweight New Order’s June 17 appearance at SDSU’s Aztec Bowl. Also on the bill: Public Image Limited (fronted by former Sex Pistol Johnny Lydon) and the Sugarcubes.