Pop Music Reviews : Louie Louie Parrots Diverse Styles at Roxy

Garage band music it isn’t.

Though Louie Louie shares his name with the quintessential grunge-guitar song of the ‘60s, the sloe-eyed singer draws little inspiration from the chaotic, anyone-can-be-a-rock-star sound it exemplifies.

At the Roxy on Tuesday, Louie showed a different kind of influence: Average White Band and Prince song titles work their way into his lyrics, and he paid homage to Sly & the Family Stone, Madonna and the disco-era S.O.S. Band by slipping snippets of their tunes into his own. Louie Louie’s strength lies mainly in his ability to parrot so many styles so ably. Though there’s little original about his act, it is at least refreshingly diverse.

Backed my enough players to form a football team, the Santa Ana-based singer bounded with unflagging energy from the eminently enjoyable dance pop of “Pushin’ It Too Hard” and “Stop Lookin’ for Someone Else” to the sly, Latin-flavored “Variety Is the Spice of Life.”

The quality of the faster-paced compositions ranged from serviceable to extraordinary; among the latter was the heady “The State I’m In.” The title track of his slick and snap-crackle-pop crisp debut album, it could be slipped onto a Prince album and mistaken for the work of the master himself.

The clunkers came on some generic, urban-contemporary balladry. The nadir was “Penny Lady,” a pathos-laden ode to a homeless woman in which Louie Louie offers her not food or shelter but a copy of his album.

That aside, Louie Louie presented an entertaining hour of radio-ready contemporary pop music. But a lack of his own distinct musical personality might hinder his ability to make the leap from the Top 20, where the sassy “Sittin’ in the Lap of Luxury” has taken him, into the higher rungs.