Pop Music Reviews : Mary’s Danish at Home at Fairfax High

There’s a soundtrack album out now for “Beverly Hills, 90210,” laughably full of light R&B.; But halfway-hep Westside high schoolers are a lot more likely to be listening to Mary’s Danish, making the Fairfax High gym a demographically correct site for the L.A. band’s appearance on Saturday. And as taste in bands goes, the kids are all right--though the ever-promising sextet still hasn’t quite yet graduated to a level of purpose that might command equal loyalty among the post-collegiate.

Up in front, the jammed crowd seemed dedicated to reproducing the sweaty scene in Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video, filmed on this very site. MD’s older punk-funk-etc. hybrid tunes such as “Axl Rose Is Love” particularly encouraged this hubbub, although the band’s new album, “American Standard,” is a move toward a more straightforward brand of rock, probably to its benefit.

As good as the band is, and as markedly improved as their singing has become, frontwomen Gretchen Seager and Julie Ritter don’t project to their audience nearly enough, except maybe when offering P.C. platitudes between songs. They affect all the right aggressive postures, yet--looking down or at each other as often as outward--seem distracted as much as determined.

The show needs some real soul to go with the obvious punch; their back-to-back solo ballad showcases, “Weeping Tree” and “O Lonely Soul, It’s a Hard Road,” were steps in the right, outrightly emotional direction, if not quite there.