POP AND JAZZ REVIEWS : Hyperactive Antics From House of Pain

House of Pain may be from Los Angeles, but you’d never know it by the rappers’ Brooklyn accents and their Irish affectations.

Rappers Everlast and Danny Boy are old Taft High School pals who pump out rhymes about ho’s, corned beef and cabbage, guns and nuns. Spins by DJ Lethal and the music’s overall thick grooves are about the only real local ties.

The group has a laid-back, Cypress Hill appeal--cool sampled saxophones, muffled production and smooth grooves--but things seem to pack more punch live than on record, thanks to the hyperactive antics of rappers.

A beer ad-inspired stage banner, featuring a green clover framed with the words “House of Pain” and “Fine Malt Lyrics,” hung proudly in the background as the trio kicked off its hour set Saturday night at the sold-out Santa Monica Civic Auditorium with “Feel It,” one of the group’s weaker songs.

Everlast and Danny Boy’s old punk-rock roots came kicking out of their baggy attire through frantic twists and jumps while the Doc Marten boot-clad audience moshed like it was 1984. The group’s biggest problem is its lyrics, which often sink into embarrassingly unoriginal “gangster and bitch” images as well as Irish stereotypes.

That’s too bad because the trio showed--especially on the thundering encore of “Shamrocks and Shenanigans”--that it can be disarmingly sloppy and fun, in a suburban, back-yard party way.