POP MUSIC REVIEW : Bad English Is Glib With the 1970s’ Cliches

In its debut American show Thursday night at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, Bad English showed that it has no problem conjugating all the verb forms of ‘70s-style corporate rock--not to mention possessing a natural fluency with the genre’s cliches as well.

But that’s to be expected from a group whose lineup includes two former members of Journey, the late, unlamented band that epitomized the bloated emptiness of big-bucks arena rock.

Bad English added nothing new to the corporate lingo in its 70-minute early show. Still, the band, fronted by British singer John Waite, did render the style in a clean, melodic fashion that at its best recalled Foreigner, one of the worthier bands of the genre.

Waite, who sounds like a less husky, less full-bodied Rod Stewart, was able to bring a sense of urgency and authentic emotion to Bad English’s better songs, all of which featured big, oft-repeated chorus hooks. The first half of the show introduced Bad English’s two tried-and-true themes--lust and stormy romance--by way of effective numbers such as “Heaven Is a 4 Letter Word” and “Tough Times Don’t Last.”

But any formula grows tiresome after a while, and Bad English was not able to move beyond the narrow boundaries of the arena sound. The two Journey alumni, Jonathan Cain and Neal Schon, provided the expected synthesizer flourishes and swooping, soaring, wailing guitar solos; bassist Ricky Phillips (who used to play with Cain and Waite in the Babys) and drummer Deen Castronovo laid down the usual big-beat chugs and thuds.

Song subjects and lyrics were strictly trade manual stuff. If it wasn’t a lustfully swaggering rocker or an anxiously romantic power ballad, it was a song like “The Restless Ones,” a stale ode to youthful rebellion that sounded as if Bad English might have swiped it from Bryan Adams when he wasn’t looking.

When the skinny, angular-looking Waite introduced a standard-issue arena drum solo on a standard-issue Lincoln Continental-sized drum kit by saying, “And now for something completely different,” it was hard to tell whether he was joking.

Bad English did seem intent on establishing an identity apart from its predecessor band. The show consisted of nine songs from the group’s debut album and nothing from Journey, the Babys, or Waite’s solo career (which included “Missing You,” a No. 1 hit in 1984).

Bad English fleshed out the show with a few unremarkable instrumental strands between songs, a slow blues number, and an encore of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and Jeff Beck’s “Goin’ Down.” Both of those chestnuts suffered from a ponderous arena-rock rhythm treatment that offered slam and bash instead of snap and swing.