POP MUSIC REVIEW : Acoustic Show Zaps Verlaine

Like an exhibition of an artist’s preliminary pencil sketches, a solo acoustic concert by a rocker who normally operates with a full band can provide a glimpse of pared-down essences, of the initial, unadorned vision behind the song.

For Tom Verlaine, though, cutting off the electricity meant losing some of the essence in a solo acoustic show on Tuesday at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano.

Ever since he emerged with Television as a leader in the 1970s New York underground, Verlaine has been one of rock’s most inventive guitar architects. Evocative electric guitar work provides the emotional key to some of Verlaine’s more lyrically abstract material.

While Verlaine made good use of dynamic shifts and well-placed pauses in his acoustic guitar accompaniments, he essentially stuck to basic chording and brief fills that hardly carried the expressive weight of his electric guitar work.

Unruffled by the sparseness of the audience, Verlaine sang with commitment and intensity throughout his 70-minute show. It paid off on songs that followed more conventional narrative lines--notably “Words From the Front,” a straightforward monologue describing a foot soldier’s fears on the eve of battle.

Verlaine (who also performs at McCabe’s tonight) brought the character to life, his voice rising and cracking at the end to convey the anguish and bitterness beneath a stoical surface. With electricity, one couldn’t help thinking, Verlaine would have powered his way to many more such electric moments.