Golden Bear’s Reincarnation : Concerts: The new and splashy Peppers Golden Bear had some opening-night glitches. But nostalgia notwithstanding, the venue offers high-tech potential and extras.

Whether by design or happy accident, the builders of the new, civic- and corporate-approved Peppers Golden Bear came up with an ideal symbol for this splashy nightspot: the outline of--what else?--a bear, in fluorescent colors and wearing a hot-pink bow tie, on the wall behind the stage.

That image reminds audiences quickly that this new, upscale establishment is bear-ly a silhouette of its historic namesake, which was razed in 1986.

That’s not a bad thing. It would have been a mistake for the burgeoning Peppers restaurant-nightclub chain to try to re-create the homey old Bear, with its cracked walls dating to construction in the 1920s, its cramped, inconvenient corner stage and its modest technical facilities.

But for the music fan, that club, which passed through a variety of owners over the years, was, above all, comfy--like a favorite old cotton shirt you throw on over the weekend, when there’s no one around to impress.

Peppers Golden Bear, a $4-million nightclub-restaurant combination that is a cornerstone of the $45-million Pierside Pavilion, all sitting on the site of the old Bear, is more showy--like the stylish, expensive duds you don when you need to make a statement.

Opening Sunday night, a few days late because of construction delays, the 500-seat Peppers Golden Bear opened to a near-capacity crowd that repeatedly cheered mentions of the old Bear as heartily as it welcomed the 75-minute inaugural performance by Bear veterans Eric Burdon and Robby Krieger.

Patrons were advised, however, that the club is still operating at only about half throttle because all the sound and light equipment is not ready. Entertainment director Rick Babiracki, owner of the ‘70s-’80s vintage Bear, said he expects to reach 100% power by this weekend.

Despite those qualifiers, the new Bear made a natty first impression. Though its real-estate lineage may hark back to the Huntington Beach legend that once hosted the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and other ‘60s rock icons, Peppers Golden Bear has a spirit that more closely resembles the tony Strand in Redondo Beach, among its active peers. Ironically, it is the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano--Peppers’ chief competitor on the O.C. club scene--that more closely captures the living-room easiness of the old Bear, which it effectively replaced 4 1/2 years ago.

Along one wall, running almost the full length of the new Golden Bear, is a rock mural echoing (faintly) the one painted by Laguna Beach muralist Wyland on the exterior brick wall of the old Bear. This one, however, is inside the club and features a snaking musical staff dotted with notes and visages of rock greats of the past such as (need we tell you?) Joplin, Hendrix, Jerry Garcia, etc.

Inside and out, this is a paradise for high-tech lovers. Bank after bank of every late-model stage light imaginable hangs from the ceiling, plus speakers every 15 feet or so from the stage to the back wall. (Because most of the speakers weren’t yet functional, the sound mix toward the back of the room was unbalanced, favoring instruments over vocals.)

The floor is a three-tiered arrangement, with long tables occupying most of the area directly in front of the stage. On weekends, the tables and chairs will be cleared, and the wood floor will provide a surface for dancing. This may give Peppers an edge over the Coach House in booking concert-club performers who want their fans to have room to get up and dance.

The view is best, predictably, up front. But except for the rear corner along the wall farthest from the main bar (there are two), where some ceiling supports might interfere with the view in standing-room-only shows, the stage can be seen clearly from almost anywhere. (One patron seated toward the back suggested an additional tier should have been added to give those who show up late a way to look, without standing, over the heads of the early birds.)

For better or worse, it appears that a warp-drive powered air-conditioning system will keep at bay those smoke-filled, sweat-soaked nights that characterized many of the old Bear’s most memorable performances. It seems unlikely that they’ll ever have to pop open the side doors on a sticky August night here to allow in the refreshing sea breeze from across the street.

Because the bookings at Peppers Golden Bear, at least in the initial few weeks, lean so heavily toward rockers of the ‘60s and ‘70s, it was no surprise that KLSX-FM deejay Damien was on hand for a quick cameo and a snippet of self-promotion for the station. (Peppers shows in coming weeks feature John Kay & Steppenwolf, Edgar Winter, Ronnie Montrose, the Strawberry Alarm Clock. . . .)

When the music got under way, a little more than 30 minutes after the advertised start time, Burdon, Krieger and their band gave the sound system a decent workout and it performed admirably. There was a tendency for the pinpoint detail of the sound, revealed at moderate levels, to blur as the volume increased. (This could be a great spot for solo acoustic performances.) Once all speakers are operating, along with an extensive array of video monitors, presumably those in the back of the bus will be hearing and seeing a lot more.

It was fitting that the opening night act was Burdon, who put on a startlingly powerful comeback show at the old Golden Bear back in August, 1982, after he had been out of circulation for nearly a decade. One story also has it that George (Nick) Nikos, the owner of the ‘60s-vintage Bear, was so taken with a show Burdon and War gave in the early ‘70s, that he presented Burdon with the club’s sign as a memento.

While Sunday’s show had its moments of raw, blues-infused power, it wasn’t enough to make the new owners think about dismantling anything just yet. Burdon and Krieger dipped into the classic-rock songbook of their old bands--the Animals and the Doors, respectively--but only rarely turned them into something revelatory. Fortunately, Burdon is a natural substitute for lead vocals on such blues-based Doors numbers as Willie Dixon’s “Back Door Man” and Jim Morrison’s “Roadhouse Blues.”

Krieger’s guitar-playing worked best on those numbers by his old band, less so when he was trying to join in on blues boogies like the Animalized version of John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom,” whose heavy-handed treatment by the four-man backing band sounded more like “Wham Wham.”

Burdon still seems to be wrestling with the dilemma of whether to continue touring as an oldies act, which guarantees him a certain, if limited, following, or to pursue newer material, such as the powerhouse opening number “Run for Your Life” from his 1988 solo album.

It’s something like the quandary the club itself is facing as it gets off the ground--oldies may tickle our nostalgia bones, but it’s the new stuff that’s going to decide whether a club, or a performer, goes down in the annals of pop music history, or merely replays them to conjure up some pleasant memories.

That question may be answered, at least partially, on Wednesday, when Peppers shows how well it can handle the up-to-the-minute world-beat music of the Southland’s own Bonedaddys.