Top-Name Bands Jam Incognito

A couple of months ago, a large crowd lined up outside FM Station i North Hollywood-on a weeknight, no less-to see an unknown band called the Wad Squad.

Word had spread that the band was actually Warrant, a popular rock group, playing incognito. The rumors proved true, and the concert proved to be yet another outbreak of Los Angeles’ beloved club fad: the weekly celebrity-in-disguise music jam.

“The Policeman’s Ball,” which visits FM Station each Wednesday, has since featured such top names as Poison and Eddie Money. Robin Trower, the Scorpions and a return appearance by Warrant are expected in weeks to come, though it’s all very hush-hush.

“They usually come under different names, so you never know,” said Susette Andres, the club’s booking secretary. “People have to listen for rumors.”

This is the Valley’s answer to clubs over the hill, like China Club and the former Club Rubber, which started weekly shows where the likes of Don Henley and Bruce Springsteen have stepped on stage impromptu to play a few tunes.

The FM Station version favors a metallic sound. It was begun by Warrant’s lead singer Jani Lane and a friend, a local promoter who goes by the name Howie H.

“We were sitting around at Jerry’s Deli on Ventura Boulevard,” Howie H said. “We were talking about ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be great if we had our own club for our friends and some of the bands we know.’ ”

Lane was already a regular at FM Station (on the liner notes for Warrant’s new album, “Cherry Pie,” he lists the club as his second home). So the musician and the promoter approached club owner Filthy McNasty and asked if they could book acts one night a week.

“Who’s going to deny an offer like that?” Andres asked.

And after the initial Warrant/Wad Squad concert, word of the weekly jam spread. Lane has been able to book other bands from the hard-rock community and, despite the covert nature of “The Policeman’s Ball,” $8 tickets for the Wednesday night shows are usually sold out several days in advance.

And ticket buyers are keeping their ears tuned to the rumor mill.

“A lot of times a band will be in town recording an album and they just want to loosen up, so we invite them down t play,” Howie H said. “It’s becoming a cool, hip hangout.”