Pop & Jazz Reviews : A Smile-Inducing Set From Little Village

Little Village’s new debut album adds up to less than the sum of its parts: Ry Cooder, John Hiatt, Jim Keltner and Nick Lowe. None of the material can match the best of the members’ solo work or earlier collaborations, including their previous get-together on Hiatt’s 1986 album “Bring the Family.”

But the sort-of supergroup’s Pantages Theatre concert on Wednesday was one of the year’s most satisfying, smile-inducing performances. Cooder and Hiatt furiously bounced licks off each other like dueling instructors at a guitar clinic, Keltner banged alluring beats on a larger-than-life drum kit, and Lowe, bass in hand, provided the backbone of what Hiatt described as the band’s “rhythm-laden music.”

The seriousness of the playing was tempered by Hiatt’s cornball shtick--one of his guitars still had the price tag hanging from it--and Lowe’s wry wit. The songs themselves have a sort of rock ‘n’ droll quality, from “Solar Sex Panel” and the Stones-ish “She Runs Hot” to “The Action,” an ode to a teen nightclub where “they’re doin’ the pony.” The last might have sounded less silly coming from Thee Midniters back in 1966 than a fortysomething Cooder a quarter century later.

Maybe there’s a reason why Little Village’s finest composition, the willowy “Don’t Go Away Mad,” was contributed by Keltner, who’s primarily a session musician: The others might be saving their good stuff for solo projects without even being aware of it. Until the four players commit themselves to the act wholeheartedly, Little Village will remain great to visit, but we sure wouldn’t want to live with it to the exclusion of the three main players’ own albums.