Pop Reviews : Mid-Range Cracker Disses L.A.

Cracker is a crackerjack rock ‘n’ roll quartet that wears feisty, funny antecedents on its sleeve: the cheeky, country-ish rip-roaringness of the Stones, the cranky insolence of the Sex Pistols, the mature-brat irony of Neil Young, etc.

Not high on the band’s influence list, however: Dale Carnegie.

Singer David Lowery, formerly of Camper Van Beethoven, virtually trumpeted his intention to lose friends and disinfluence people at Cracker’s show on Friday at the Palace, announcing before the first number that he’s historically hated playing Hollywood but would give the town “another chance.”

Soon, it became apparent from his series of diatribes that the chance was blown: “I’m just so . . . tired of playing in L.A. I’ve been doing it for seven years. There’s nothing but industry geeks here. This is not a real concert --except you people who are not in the music business, we dig you, we love you.” And so it went for the group’s hour on stage.

Some insultees found embarrassing Lowery’s repeated dissing of the city and the audience, which seemed quite full of paying, non-geek fans, thank you. Others admired his forthrightness, figuring that lots of bands think those terrible things about lackadaisical, arms-folded L.A. crowds but never have the nerve to say so.

In any case, the singer’s ornery streak didn’t translate to an angrily galvanized, great set, nor to a disinterestedly lazy one, but a good enough show somewhere in between. The band played only half its terrific debut album and immediately cut short the one famous Camper tune it began, instead filling most of the second half-hour with new songs and outside choices--like Young’s “F*!in’ Up” and Nick Lowe’s “Peace, Love and Understanding,” together a nice complement to Cracker’s own “Don’t . . . Me Up with Peace and Love” and “Someday.”

A nice, impetuous set, overall, although we reckon we’ll have to venture to Barstow or Bakersfield to hear a “real” Cracker concert.

Second-billed Basehead made for an unlikely but perfectly wonderful booking choice, with its slightly lethargic, highly introspective hip-hop.

In a concert setting, with a live quartet augmented by a deejay, the group seemed less like the quietly intoxicated, quasi-rap act of its debut album than an actual funk band on a dreamy tip.