POP MUSIC REVIEW : Rod Stewart at Hollywood Bowl--With Conviction

What’s gotten into Rod Stewart?

He’s actually singing these days instead of shouting. What’s more, he even seems to care about what he’s singing.

His sold-out show at Hollywood Bowl on Monday night was one of his best in recent years. Right now, the gravel-voiced singer, backed as usual by an excellent band, has one of the liveliest shows in rock.

His most recent album, the year-old, 2-million-selling “Out of Order,” has not only rejuvenated his sagging career, it seems to have rejuvenated him too.

Stewart’s shows this decade have mostly been all frolicking and little serious singing. Fun’s fun, but his casual attitude was getting to be a bit much. He’d sing off-key or blow lyrics and didn’t seem to care.

A few years ago, Stewart seemed like an over-the-hill rocker having his last fling. In those days, when he sang ballads such as Otis Redding’s “Dock of the Bay” and “Try a Little Tenderness,” he appeared to be resting up from his relentless, pointless prancing. But at the Bowl, he put some feeling into those songs. You felt his conviction--his genuine effort to interpret the lyrics.

These days, he’s striking a balance between rollicking rowdiness and vocalizing with conviction. On Monday, he very carefully sang the material from his current album and had rip-roaring fun with oldies such as “Twistin’ the Night Away,” “Every Picture Tells a Story” and “Hot Legs”--songs that he can by now sing with a minimum of effort.

Stewart still does some of his signature preening, prancing and fanny-wiggling--but not nearly as much as he used to. Maybe he thinks it’s too undignified for a 44-year-old man to spend a whole show cavorting like a Chippendale’s dancer.

When he did some leaping and prancing (he’s amazingly limber for an old-timer), it seemed to have more of a purpose. Maybe he just wanted to show that he can still do it--that’s he’s one rocker who’s not yet ready for the rocking chair.