POP MUSIC REVIEW : The Pursuit of Happiness: Pounding Pop to a Pulp

The Pursuit of Happiness is no revolutionary rock band, but it is one worth rallying around for listeners who think that a catchy melody and a hammering beat is a pop fan’s inalienable right.

The strength of the Canadian band’s show Saturday night at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano was its ability, time and again, to send a capsule of captivating melody into orbit on the shoulders of a booster-rocket instrumental surge.

Yet, by overplaying its strength, the band turned it into a flaw. Like space launches, those catchy pop blast-offs became a little routine with successful repetition, no matter how magnificent they might be when taken individually. It would have helped if the Pursuit of Happiness, which plays again Tuesday at Bogart’s in Long Beach, slowed the pace from time to time, instead of making nearly everything hurtle ahead at full thrust. Even a band with the power to launch moon shots should occasionally take a hint from that old declaration-signer, Ben Franklin, and realize that sometimes you can get electrifying results just by flying a kite.

The band’s single-mindedness about rocking out led to stretches of sameness during the 80-minute set, and the emphasis on muscle led to a sound mix that sometimes obscured the shine on the band’s harmony-glazed pop hooks. But if the Pursuit of Happiness can be criticized for following a formula to excess, it’s only fair to appreciate how much fun that formula is.

Moe Berg, who sings, writes the band’s songs and plays lead guitar, has an Everyman rock voice--a little nasal, a little flat, a little thin. But bright, Bangles-quality harmonies from Kris Abbott and Leslie Stanwyck cushioned Berg’s voice and balanced out a slashing, driving instrumental attack that featured Berg’s raw but concise guitar solos. If the band fell into sameness from song to song, it achieved a nice sense of proportion and development within individual tunes.

Some of Berg’s lyrics got lost in the din, but they are another strength. Essentially, Berg has one subject, summed up by the title of the band’s debut album, “Love Junk.” But he addresses matters of the heart and loins with wit and comes at them from shifting perspectives and odd angles, ranging from crude to jarring to winningly innocent.

The band interspersed five new songs in a set that included all of “Love Junk,” plus a jukebox encore of Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen,” Badfinger’s “No Matter What,” and Elvis Presley’s “Little Sister.” The new material followed the style of “Love Junk” rather than exploring new directions.

The Pursuit of Happiness was happily free from pretensions. Berg, with his wire-frame glasses, long stringy hair and high forehead, looks as if he could as easily be a computer hacker as a rocker; between songs, he was a friendly host who addressed the audience as “folks” and talked wryly about such things as old high-school jealousies and his new Three Stooges T-shirt (it featured Larry, rather than Berg’s namesake, Moe). Even backup singer Stanwyck, the band’s only source of glamour, was unassuming in her sultry way. Instead of dancing like a performer, with video-choreographed steps, she danced with the natural movements of a fan caught up in the music pouring from a powerful band.

Middle act Legal Rein may not cast melodic hooks quite as tastily baited as the Pursuit of Happiness’, but the San Francisco band played a grabbing set that displayed an impressive range--from noisy, spirited bashing a la the Replacements to topical folk balladry, anthem rock and an atmospheric, strikingly original remake of the Beatles’ “Dear Prudence” that was alternately crashing and delicate. A band to watch.

One Day’s opening set was capably played and well-received, but the local band still seems bogged down in musical territory already staked out by R.E.M. and the Smithereens. A wider range of feelings might help: while One Day played with bite, Alan Dugan’s singing had an unvaryingly tremulous quality that limited the band.