Pop : Soviet Union’s DDT Debuts at Palladium

Being called the No. 1 rock band in the Soviet Union is a little like being called the No. 1 skier in Saudi Arabia. It’s all well and good, but what happens when you tackle the slopes of Innsbruck?

Touted as the top Soviet band (like several other acts that have already played here), the seven-piece DDT must have felt as if it were skiing uphill at the Hollywood Palladium on Friday. In the Soviet Union, the band--though operating strictly “underground,” thanks to lyrics that are skeptical about the motives and effectiveness of perestroika --is said to play before crowds of 20,000. Its Western Hemisphere debut at the 4,400-capacity ballroom was attended by fewer than 200.

Whatever enthusiasm and/or curiosity many of those few had was dampened by a delay in the opening of the Palladium doors until 40 minutes past show time, and then by a tedious set of Hendrix-inspired guitar histrionics by Sasha Liapin (“the Soviet Union’s No. 1 guitarist”). By the time DDT took the stage, the event hardly seemed historic, or even noteworthy. A more modest setting and more modest hype would have better served the sometimes inventive and always accomplished music and singer Yuri Shevchuck’s dramatic delivery.