CLUB REVIEW : Disco Fever Burning Hot at Superfly

In only four months, Superfly has become an institution of hip.

Although the Wednesday night club benefits from its choice location, Hollywood’s painfully cool Dragonfly, it’s the house band that ups the ante into a feverish strata--”Saturday Night Fever,” that is. Wearing tight, white suits in honor of John Travolta and ending each of their three nightly sets with “The Hustle,” the Boogie Knights actually have talent that goes beyond the ‘70s shtick.

Employing virtually every major soul and disco hit from that period, the quintet takes such bland numbers as K.C. and the Sunshine Band’s “That’s the Way (I Like It)” and Lionel Richie’s “Easy” and plays them with conviction. Coupling a powerful, funky guitar sound with a consistently bumping rhythm section, the Knights give disco an edge that it didn’t have the first time around.

The group recently increased its repertoire from about 17 songs to nearly 40, and among the new highlights is a raucous version of Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke.”

One big negative, though: The band’s guitarist dons an Afro wig and engages in between-song “jive” banter that’s just a step short of black-face. It’s especially a shame since this band’s so genuinely good it doesn’t need to don wigs or personas to get down tonig . . . er, Wednesday nights.