Pop Reviews : Hard-Rockers Trouble Observe the Sabbath

Into the ‘90s, it’s less a question of evaluating the day’s hard-rock bands musically than of decoding their contexts, then seeing how well they pull it off: Guns N’ Roses pulls off Aerosmith exceedingly well; Whitesnake doesn’t do so well with the Zep.

Which brings us to Trouble, which played the Palace on Tuesday. It’s not so much that the Chicago band sounds like Black Sabbath: trudging tempos; minor-key goth; hair in their faces like “The Addams Family’s” Cousin It. Trouble is Black Sabbath--Ozzy screeches, sludgy chord progressions and all--far more faithfully than Black Sabbath itself, which has, after all, gone on to other things.

The Trouble makers play well, they write good songs, their new album’s great, but on stage Trouble had no discernible personality of its own, like five guys playing guitar rock in five glass isolation booths--even in a version of “Helter Skelter,” which any metal band worth its Marshalls should be able to creepify.

Headliners Enuff Z’Nuff, glammy hard-popsters also from Chicago, did about as well as you could expect from a band whose guitarist’s shirt is color-coordinated with his instrument, whose bass player is fond of vaulting off the drum riser. The band’s brand of cookie-cutter KNAC rock, while occasionally catchy, is utterly banal.