New Order’s Bassist Fails to Hook Quality : The moonlighting member of the British band showed some energy with his new group Revenge at the Coach House, but the songs were uninvolving and lacked substance.

A New Order concert can be the next best thing to Sominex. But Peter Hook, the popular British dance-rock band’s moonlighting bassist, showed a surprising wild streak as he fronted his new group, Revenge, Tuesday night at the Coach House.

The cussing, hollering, arm-waving Hook didn’t show much more than that, though. Revenge’s uninvolving hour on stage centered on a voice of narrow range and little individuality, and songs of solid craftsmanship but scant substance. Having his own band gave Hook a chance to work out some pent-up energy in lumbering fashion. For all the expressiveness of the concert, he might have taken up rugby instead.

Revenge’s basic sound through most of the show was darker, tougher, more dense and more rock-oriented than New Order, although the second half veered toward New Order-style techno-dance pop on numbers like “Slave” and “Pineapple Face” (the show consisted mainly of songs from Revenge’s debut album, “One True Passion,” and included no material from New Order or its predecessor, Joy Division).

The dance-beat stuff failed to lock into a motivating groove, and the rockers tended to be murky, rather than steely and hard. The most focused moments came during a persuasively angry run through the Rolling Stones’ “Citadel” and a simmering, but not scalding encore, the Velvet Underground’s “White Light/White Heat.”

Although Hook’s trebly, purposefully probing bass-guitar style has influenced legions of post-punk players, he let his instrument dangle most of the time. He seemed more interested in smashing on an electronic drum pad. The resulting blips and whooshes re-created the soundscape of the average video arcade. Most of the bass playing was left to hired hand David Potts, who, along with drummer Ashley Taylor, reinforced Revenge’s basic trio of Hook, guitarist Dave Hicks and keyboards player Chris Jones. The latter two played subsidiary roles.

As a vocalist, Hook was generic, recalling many British singers who resort to deep, dramatic, whispery intonations to compensate for their lack of range. Because he was unable to sing high notes, Hook’s main way to add some color and emphasis was to scream at the end of a verse. He had a habit of wheezing loudly as he gulped for his next breath.

Introducing “Kiss the Chrome,” Hook announced facetiously that the song was “all about life, love and happiness.” In fact, Revenge’s nebulous songs were hardly more specific than that, although love-hate and frustration seemed closer to the general tenor than love and happiness. The band’s material is put together well, with catchy refrains and shifting textures. But without stories to tell, or evocative moods to create, those positive qualities counted for little.

Songs became vehicles for Hook’s strenuous effort to be an emphatic front man. He wound up trying too hard. Hook posed, pointed and pirouetted, waving his arms through the air like a man trying to re-create “Swan Lake” after having a few too many at the bar. In one of his favorite theatrical poses, Hook would stretch out one hand while holding the other near his ear, like an archer about to let fly. Just what the world needs: a stubbly-faced Cupid.

Died Pretty, an Australian band, maintained a determined, embattled tone through most of its 40-minute opening set. There was no questioning of the sincerity and fervor of tiny, husky-voiced singer Ronald Perno, who has a bit of Bono in him. It’s hard, though, to have impact with a stage presence as wooden as Died Pretty’s, and the band’s brooding, jangling material didn’t offer anything, other than some pleasantly coursing organ undercurrents, to stand out from dozens of other alternative bands that brood and jangle. The tentative performance failed to deliver the confident, anthem-rock surge that the band sometimes achieves on its new album, “Every Brilliant Eye.”

PACIFIC TURNS TO METAL: Having abstained from heavy metal since its 1988 season, the Pacific Amphitheatre is returning to the hard stuff with a vengeance in the wake of a favorable verdict last month in the amphitheater’s long-running court battle with neighbors over concert noise. Dio, Stryper, Love Hate, Dogs D’Amour and Cold Sweat will play a marathon metal bill Sept. 23 starting at 3:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale now.

Tour itineraries released by their record companies list an Oct. 27 date by Billy Idol and Faith No More at the Pacific, although the amphitheater has not yet publicly announced the show. . . . Oingo Boingo’s annual Halloween party at Irvine Meadows is being expanded to a two-night affair. A second show has been added Oct. 27, with tickets going on sale Saturday at 9 a.m. . . . Alternative rock band Mazzy Star, a critic’s favorite, will play Sept. 13 at the Coach House. . . . The postponed Steve Wynn show at Peppers Golden Bear in Huntington Beach has been rescheduled for Sept. 7.

ADOLESCENCE REVISITED: Rikk Agnew’s Yard Sale, the latest project by one of Orange County’s leading punk rockers, will play Friday night at the Doll Hut in Anaheim. Agnew and band will depart next week for a tour of Europe. The former member of the Adolescents, D.I. and Christian Death has a solo album, “Emotional Vomit,” due out next month on Triple X Records. . . . Dr. Dream Records has signed Orange County rock band Cadillac Tramps. The raunchy blues and punk-influenced band has become one of the biggest draws on the local scene. . . . The Orange County songwriting team of Tim James and Steve McClintock receives co-writing credit on five of the 10 songs on the “Jetsons: The Movie” soundtrack album. Tiffany, who had a 1989 hit with the McClintock-James composition, “All This Time,” sings three of the numbers.