British Men Air Views And Blow Off Steam

Like the Pogues and the Oyster Band, the post-punk Anglo-Celtic folk-rock group the Men They Couldn’t Hang draws on centuries-old musical traditions not so much for the sound as for a sense of rage, frustration and defiance that’s as appropriate in Thatcher’s England as it was in Dickens’ or Shakespeare’s. On Saturday at Club Lingerie, where the Welsh/English/Scottish Men made their L.A. debut, the tradition was that of the lubricated pub sing-along, a forum to air views and to blow off steam.

Co-leader Cush did plenty of the latter, verbally zinging people in the audience he felt were too sedate. But the 70-minute set didn’t have enough of the Pogues’ damn-the-torpedoes freewheelingness, and without the penny whistles, pipes and fiddles heard on the group’s four albums, Paul Simmonds’ electric bouzouki and mandolin was the primary source of instrumental color. Still, the Men stormed and stomped without pause--though it wasn’t enough to transform the Hollywood hangers into pub-hanging punters.