Pop Music Reviews : The Most Unlikely Metal Heroes in the Business

They’re young, they’re hip, they’re best friends with Metallica. They’re San Francisco rockers Faith No More, the biggest band to come out of the U.S. punk circuit since the Misfits broke up in the early ‘80s. Their first local date since the fall shows that made them famous (opening for Metallica at the Long Beach Arena) was a sold-out Palace concert on Tuesday, where you could hear a lot of the moody keyboards left over from when they were an art band that played Al’s Bar.

Faith No More is still kind of a quirky new-wave band, with Joe Jackson vocals and actual melodies. But now they can do the Metallica thing too: Those songs in which they did--intense, ballad-y sections alternating with loud, drum-tattoo-style power riffing--were the ones that got the audience doing back-flips off the stage. They’re the most unlikely heavy-metal heroes in the business. And to tell the truth, their blend of influences brings them closer to boring, commercial hard rock than any of their fans will admit.

Openers Primus, another young Metallica-influenced San Francisco art band, were heavy , tempos never accelerating past a jackboot plod, bass cranked enough to rattle the ceiling.