POP MUSIC REVIEW : Eclectic Wild Cards Deserve a Full House

While trying to cultivate a national following with exhaustive touring since 1988, the Wild Cards haven’t had the time, or the venue, to till their home fields.

Consequently, the Orange County band played to only 100 or so people Wednesday night at Peppers Golden Bear, the new club that has shown an admirable willingness to give local rockers a stage.

The small turnout in this rare, local headlining appearance didn’t stop the Wild Cards from putting on an intense, varied show. After nearly two hours that went from blues to salsa to calypso music to Latinized funk music, with detours into jump swing, a bit of shimmering soul balladry and even some rap and cool jazz, the Wild Cards had staked a strong claim for themselves as a dance band of the highest order.

Half the material was drawn from the Wild Cards’ upcoming second album, “Back it Up,” which is due out in January on the independent Chameleon label. None of those songs stuck out immediately. It was hard to get a fix on lyrical content, partly because of the sound mix, but also partly because singer Adrian Remijio’s syllable-bending, soul-blues phrasing didn’t make for sharp enunciation.

The new songs, like most of those on the Wild Cards’ debut album, “Cool Never Cold,” seemed to lack the roundhouse pop hooks that radio programmers look for. The Wild Cards do work within fairly narrow melodic boundaries that could bear some stretching. Remijio is a solid, but not exceptional, singer. His voice recalls the huskier side of Stevie Wonder, but aside from a good falsetto, he didn’t show the full arsenal of textures and tones that a first-rank soul singer could muster.

If Remijio does have it in him, vocally, to make the leap from good to exceptional, we could have a Chicano Robert Cray on our hands. Judging from his inspired, generous playing at Peppers, Remijio already has the guitar genius half of the Cray equation pretty well covered.

There were echoes of B.B. King’s clean, taut style, and Carlos Santana’s dramatic, Latinized blues in Remijio’s playing, but those were just starting points. Through solo after extended solo--and he seemed to be soloing much of the time--the guitarist with the hill of curly black hair kept finding ways to remain fresh and inventive. Remijio would change tempos, shift textures, and move from darting, sharply articulated lead runs to deft, high-impact chording. There were moments during his chordal gliding when it sounded as if a reed or woodwind instrument had gotten mixed up in the Wild Cards’ basic lineup of two guitars, bass and drum. Remijio accomplished all this without flash, wasted energy or ostentation.

He was hardly the entire show. Jesse Reyes got in his share of complex rhythm guitar licks, did his usual amazing leaping, whirling dance breakdown, and even rapped a little--an overly trendy touch, perhaps, but one he executed with a convincing, full-bodied bellow. New member Luis Oliart seems to be the answer to the problem the band has had in keeping a suitable, steady bassist (Oliart is the third bassist to join since original member Johnny Frias left the band about two years ago). He contributed to the Wild Cards’ signature ‘40s-style harmonies that always sounded creamy yet punchy, played a supple bass and was an enthusiastic presence on stage.

You can’t have a first-class dance band without a first-rate drummer. Jesse Sotelo Jr. played with the snap and assurance of a big-band drummer, driving the beat along and spicing it with cowbells and timbales to lend a Latin rhythmic spin.

With four players who each built interesting rhythmic structures, sharp, full harmonies that broadened the sound, and a dynamic soloist at the heart of it all, the Wild Cards sounded as big as a basic four-piece can. Trying to categorize them is fruitless (they’re sort of like a more bluesy Kid Creole & the Coconuts, without the big-band horns and jokes). Maybe it’s best just to think of the Wild Cards as body music with soul.

The Tearjerkers, who opened, have a promising premise: Blend the R&B-flavored; girl-group harmonies of the early ‘60s with pure-pop, slightly psychedelic styles from the mid- to late-’60s. The three contrasting female voices hit a nice harmony blend, although their solo efforts were inconsistent. The songs offered some clever takes on the war between the sexes. Still, the 55-minute set dragged. The Tearjerkers’ sort of pop has to be played with the utmost exuberance and tight rhythmic snap, and that spark in the rhythm section just wasn’t there. That proved fatal as the Tearjerkers settled into a long slog through slow and medium-tempo songs from which they never emerged.

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