POP WEEKEND : Charlatans UK Powers Up to Outdo the Stone Roses

Charlatans UK has topped the fiercely competitive U.S. college/alternative rock charts for almost three months, which most certainly qualified the British band’s Los Angeles debut as a night of special importance.

Still, it was hard for those who have watched the Manchester, England, rock scene the last two years not to think of the Charlatans as chiefly a stand-in Friday at UCLA’s Ackerman Grand Ballroom for a more heralded Manchester band, the Stone Roses.

The Charlatans surfaced after Stone Roses and play in the same sort of wistful, psychedelic-cum-funk dance/rock style of the Roses’ remarkable 1989 debut album.

The irony is that the Roses--due to an odd combination of bratty irreverence, pop strategy and legal tiffs--has never followed up that album with either a U.S. tour or even a second album.

Moving into the void, the Charlatans have followed its late 1990 album with a quick tour, putting it in a place to make the Stone Roses seem like Charlatans UK followers when they eventually tour here.

Imagine the Dave Clark Five reaching “The Ed Sullivan Show” before the Beatles. Would it have made any difference in the eventual popularity of the two groups?

Charlatans UK didn’t show any signs of timidity Friday. The quintet’s presentation had the stamp of Something Big Is Happening Here all over it. Or, maybe just: Something Big All Over Again.

The group walked on stage in semi-darkness, amid lots of billowy smoke and bright spotlights aimed at the audience--all of which gave the five band members a teasingly mysterious aura.

As soon as the music started, Capt. Whizzo, a New Yorker who has been putting on rock light shows for 25 years, began entertaining the crowd with an ambitious, ‘60s-styled light show, using film and liquid components to cast intriguing images on a screen.

Lead singer Tim Burgess not only sounded like the Roses’ Ian Brown but also looked like Brown with his vaguely mop-top hair style--in the seconds when there was a speckle of light on him. Both singers offer much of the youthful wonder and awe of a young Michael Stipe.

While there is also a trace of the jangly Byrds/R.E.M. influence in both bands, the Roses’ sound is chiefly guitar-based where the Charlatans’ music is highlighted by a Hammond organ. Rob Collins kicked off some of the songs with a Booker T.-like intro and took slashing solos elsewhere.

Whether the approach is part of a strong original vision or largely borrowed from the Roses, the group’s trance-like dance-rock style--also powered by drummer Jon Brookes--was clearly effective at times, causing considerable dance-floor movement.

For all the sense of New Thing, however, there were little dynamics on stage--outside of Whizzo’s light show. Granted, it’s hard to be charismatic in the dark, but Burgess did little more than twist and weave anonymously.

After three songs, you felt you knew exactly where the show was headed--and the Charlatans didn’t prove you wrong. To borrow a ‘60s term, the quintet didn’t take you higher than the record with their music or manner, the way an important new band normally does in concert.

Still, the Manchester dance-rock merger is an exciting direction in rock and the Charlatans have to be viewed as a contender. Time will tell whether they eventually end up in the shadow of the Stone Roses (and the more radical Happy Mondays) or ahead of them.