Pop Music Reviews : Irreverent Harding Stands Out on Clean-Cut Triple Bill

The three acts on stage Wednesday at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano looked clean-cut and scrubbed enough to get day jobs at Disneyland. The Mighty Lemon Drops and the Ocean Blue were self-effacing bands that would have no trouble getting hired, but their Sire Records label-mate John Wesley Harding would probably flunk his job interview by making some cheeky remark.

Although playing solo, the British newcomer was the only act on the bill to show much edge or personality, salting his half-hour set with lots of irreverent pop star name-dropping and singing a heavy-handed but effective spoof about Live Aid. Harding did best, though, when he wasn’t trying so hard to be witty. The set’s highlight was “Spaced Cowgirl,” a ballad with a complex blend of compassion and condescension toward a woman who’s losing her grip.

Like a lot of newcomers, Harding has yet to commit the necessary assassination of his influences. In his vocal style and tone, and in his songs’ quick torrent of imagery and wordplay, he was a virtual mirror of Elvis Costello. Harding styles himself as “the groom” in a wry song about his arrival on the rock scene, but until he finds his own distinctive voice, he’s asking Costello fans to become musical bigamists.

The Mighty Lemon Drops also seemed fixed at times on a better-known precursor: the Doors. While the British band threw out catchy pop hooks and managed a strong rhythmic surge when it wasn’t playing turgid ballads, the show quickly fell into sameness.

The Drops’ songs about romantic contretemps didn’t catch hold emotionally, and the band, which has been around since 1986, has yet to develop a performing personality. Hence the need for smoke, strobe lighting and--in a club!--a green laser beam during a rushed encore rendition of the Rolling Stones’ “Paint It, Black.”

The Ocean Blue, from Hershey, Pa., offered a pillowy weave of synthesizer and rippling guitar that proved to be an inviting backdrop for reverie, with a sturdy rhythmic spine and a knack for the occasional melodic hook helping to sustain interest during long, dreamy passages.

The triple bill was scheduled to move to the Palace on Thursday, and plays UC San Diego’s Price Center tonight.