Pop Music Review : Danny Elfman, Boingo Don’t Clown Around at Whisky

The Clowns of Death are Boingo without the Oingo, which isn’t as quirky as that sounds. Bandleader Danny Elfman revealed this latest version of Oingo Boingo at the Whisky on Wednesday, shed of its horn section, and took his music in a surprising straight-ahead rock groove.

The band prefers the shortened Boingo moniker now, and the Clowns of Death name on the marquee was merely a jokey disguise for this rare club gig, the first of two nights at the Whisky. Elfman returned the band to the venue that helped launch its career a dozen years ago to perform music from the new Boingo album, the group’s first collection of new material in four years.

Some of the old hysterical songs would have been out of place alongside Elfman’s newer work, which travels through dramatic pop, funk, grungy(!) rock and acoustic balladry with a newfound control. Gone was most of the irritating, forced strangeness of the dark days of the late ‘80s. During the song “Change,” Elfman even let his Beatles influences show, with sharp psychedelics from guitarist Steve Bartek and a steady Ringo-beat from drummer Johnny (Vatos) Hernandez.

At more than two hours, Wednesday’s show was a bit long. But Elfman didn’t seem to notice. This break from successful movie soundtrack work (“Batman”) and back into odd pop left him wearing a relaxed, even serene grin through most of it.