Pop Music : ‘Fun-Raiser’: Good Way to Take Measure of Alternative Scene

Once upon a time you could get the cream of Los Angeles’ underground rock crop together for a show at the drop of a hat. These days, it seems you have to be passing the hat, such as the recent benefit for AIDS-stricken musician-journalist Craig Lee, or Friday’s sixth annual Christmas “Fun-Raiser” at the Roxy for several children’s and AIDS-related charities.

Besides being a worthy venture (more than $5,000 was collected Friday, plus many toys and baby goods), the Ringling Sisters’ yearly benefits provide an accurate measure of the local alternative scene’s evolution. This year showed that it has completed a transition from bohos to pros.

It’s a journey made by all this year’s musical acts: former Three O’Clock leader Michael Quercio leading a new trio, Permanent Green Light, that sounded like his old band as interpreted by the Who; Steve Wynn, previewing confident and explosive material from his upcoming album; the always entertaining Redd Kross and the always challenging Firehose.

The change was most dramatic with the Ringling Sisters themselves. What started as a loose aggregation of rock-singing and poetry-reading women is now a real pop group, and a good one at that, with a greater sense of focus and direction (though less of the old semi-amateur charm).

Missing from the night as a whole was a sense of inter-band camaraderie--no spontaneous jams or anything that would have made the show more than a sum of its parts.