POP MUSIC REVIEW : Harry Stresses Mood Over Ol’ Blondie Bang

Deborah Harry, who plays the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano Saturday night, opened her show at the Country Club in Reseda on Monday with a touch of restraint, rather than with the expected bang.

It was daring and surprising enough to enrich the rest of the set, which was not all that daring or surprising--at least until the final encore, when Harry saluted two New York influences with versions of the Velvet Underground’s “Waiting for the Man” and the Ramones’ “Pet Sematary.”

Instead of a splashy Blondie hit or an upbeat tune from her new album, the new-wave-era pinup girl began with a low-key Peggy Lee-style version of Smokey Robinson’s 1967 Marvelettes hit, “The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game.” With its eerie mood and odd little stairstep lines, the song demanded every bit of Harry’s limited expressive and technical range. It also caught the crowd off guard, drawing people in instead of blowing them away.

From there it was a more predictable pastiche of Blondie songs (all four of the New Yorkers’ No. 1 hits) and numbers from her new “Def, Dumb & Blonde” LP. Of the latter, only “I Want That Man” has the spark and buoyancy of the old stuff, but her five-piece band--which includes Blondie architect Chris Stein and a drummer, Jimmy Clark, with the moves and drive of Blondie’s Clem Burke--mowed through it all with such vigor that the momentum rarely let up. Not too slick, not too sloppy.

Even though she is still looking for her footing as a solo act seven years after the end of Blondie, Harry retains her Warhol-superstar cool and remains a puzzling performer: stiff but sometimes endearing, aloof but somehow able to connect with a loyal following ranging from pop purists to soft-core slam-dancers to true believers--like the guy frantically holding up a leather jacket with her picture on it, desperate for her notice.

Debbie Harry will sing Saturday at 9 p.m. at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. The show is sold out. Information: (714) 496-8930.