Cello Sets Tone of Richard Barone Show : His rock band experimented with sonic synthesis in a highly melodic, dynamic performance at the Coach House.

You don’t typically see “cellist wanted” listings in the classified sections of rock magazines, but perhaps Richard Barone and his band can start a new trend.

With Jane Scarpantoni wielding the bow, Barone’s show Tuesday night at the Coach House benefited from shadings and textures seldom encountered on a rock concert stage.

This was not the sort of rock-meets-the-classics gimmick listeners learned to expect from the Electric Light Orchestra, which massed cellos and violins for the sake of pomp and flash. Scarpantoni, seated just to the side of bandleader Barone, didn’t come to the ball to dress it up in a little high culture. She came as a fully engaged rock musician, ready to serve as an integral part of a band. Scarpantoni hardly ever stopped playing, and her playing never stopped making sense.

She was central to the band from the show’s very first driving riff, in which the cello doubled the electric bass. Scarpantoni was often “it” in games of interactive tag in which the cello would spin and twine in response to Barone’s twisting electric lead guitar parts. But she was no less a presence when jumping into the rhythm section in a supporting role that lent both power and nuance. When the situation called for a delicate change of pace, Scarpantoni was ready with the sort of thing one expects from a cello: a broad, classic tone full of warmth and grace.

With bass, drums and acoustic guitar laying down basic rhythms, Barone, Scarpantoni and percussionist Valerie Naranjo dabbed in the sonic colors in an exceptionally melodic 70-minute show that included 11 of the 12 songs from Barone’s new album, “Primal Dream,” plus quiet covers from the Beatles (“Cry Baby Cry”) and the Velvet Underground (“I’ll Be Your Mirror”).

Barone’s voice was consistently appealing with its reedy quality offset by a husky grain, although he occasionally strained for a note. His guitar work, emphasizing distortion effects that didn’t part with melody, was the main driving force in the six-piece ensemble, which kicked in tightly after a few rough spots early on.

Stormy music predominated, but Barone inserted several interludes in which drums and bass sat out, leaving a chamber-pop quartet. One song, “Flew a Falcon,” had it both ways. Naranjo, a vibrant performer given to dramatic flourishes, would bang out crashing kettle drum rolls with her mallets, then stop and let the cello answer in a quieter, more understated way that built tension until the next dynamic drum surge.

Barone did play a spirited rocker, “Barbarella,” for sheer dumb fun (it was a number from his old band, the Bongos). But most of the show took on an attitude of earnest searching and striving--a sense of wavering warmth amid darkness that had its emotional echo in the tonality of the cello itself.

The performance got the response it deserved from a small but fully appreciative audience that was delighted to hear a pop-rock band deliver more than the usual thing.

THE BEAT GOES ON: The Vandals have a new drummer, Josh Freeze, who at 17 is a veteran of touring with Stacey Q and Michael Damian. The Orange County teen-ager also recently played on sessions for Dweezil Zappa’s next album. As a result, Dweezil and his sister, Moon Zappa, plan to appear on the Vandals’ next album. Bob Casale of Devo is producing the record, which is tentatively entitled “Fear of a Punk Planet.”