POP MUSIC REVIEW : Poindexter Hams It Up at Hamptons

They were launching a new pop nightclub Thursday night, and they had the consummate nightclub ham do the honors. Turned out not to be a bad idea at all.

The new club is Hamptons, newly outfitted as a 490-capacity restaurant and concert venue after a long existence as the Harlequin dinner theater. The tux-clad ham with the pliable, ever-mugging face and the raspy, high-wattage voice was Buster Poindexter.

The house was no more than half-filled ($27.50 a seat is a lot of money, even for a consummate ham), but Buster and his sharp 12-member band, the Banshees of Blue, regaled and delighted the mixed-age audience that turned out.

Poindexter, the alter ego of former glam rocker David Johansen, is a one-man cavalcade of musical novelties and campy jests whose act is an affectionate spoof of lounge-act shtick. What sets Poindexter far above other parodists is his way of putting on an uptown sophisticate’s guise while combing much of his repertoire from down-home sources.

Thursday’s show encompassed Latin carnival music; wry, chitlin’ circuit R&B; numbers and early rock ‘n’ roll; a couple of super-soppy torch ballads, and even a drawling rendition of George Jones’ “Yabba Dabba Doo (The King Is Gone And So Are You).” One regret: Poindexter didn’t sally forth on one of his rambling, fanciful shaggy-dog monologues about strange encounters with celebrities. Instead he confined himself to jokes whose point wasn’t the punch line (usually lame) so much as to provide an excuse for the Poindexter persona to bubble forth in all its New York-accented glory.

It was the Latin stuff, “Cannibal” and “Hot Hot Hot,” that got the house really shaking toward the end (a mild earthquake in the middle of the Coasters’ “Shoppin’ For Clothes” rattled a few glasses, but not the cakewalking Poindexter, who didn’t appear to notice the tremor). During “Hot Hot Hot,” Buster and some of the Banshees snaked through the aisles in a conga line and turned the swanky setting into a throbbing party scene. Even some of the formally bow-tied and white-shirted waiters were bopping and cheering in the wings--a good sign that swank won’t mean stuffy at Hamptons.

The club’s appointments include tablecloths, plush green carpeting, fancy wallpaper, Vegas showroom-style decorative lighting, comfortably padded chairs and cute little flower-shaped lighting fixtures on each table. There is also, for those willing to pay more, a row of eight “sky box” style compartments that look down on the large stage from balcony level.

Hamptons is a high-ceilinged, airy place that lacks the up-close intimacy of its two cozy Orange County competitors, the Coach House and the Crazy Horse Steak House, while offering greater comfort. Seating is in five tiers that rise from a stage-side pit, affording clear sight lines from all vantage points. In overall feel, Hamptons resembles the tony supper club atmosphere of the Strand, a Redondo Beach club that books a wide range of rock and pop acts. But Hamptons’ layout and sight lines are much better than the Strand’s.

The sound was good through most of Poindexter’s 90-minute show, although the room acoustics were a bit bright and trebly, some of Poindexter’s lyrics were hard to make out when the Banshees’ horn section was wailing, and his two backup singers often got lost in the mix. Joe Schenk, the club’s booking agent, said before the concert that Hamptons’ new sound system is still being fine-tuned.

Upcoming shows include an oldies revue, “Legends In Concert,” Dec. 18-30; Jack Jones, Dec. 31; and Blood Sweat & Tears, Jan. 5-6.