POP MUSIC REVIEW : Reunion Takes a While to Get Go-Go-ing

Sure, it’s pretentious for a band to make its stage entrance to a blaring tape of “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” but perhaps that pomp is justified when the timpani are drowned out by the tumult of the standing ovation greeting the band.

So the Go-Go’s reclaimed the concert stage after nearly a 10-year absence (discounting a 1990 mini-tour), kicking off a short reunion tour Sunday at the Coach House (they also play the Wiltern in Los Angeles on Dec. 1 and 2).

In 1982, the Los Angeles quintet was the first to prove that an all-female rock band could be successful, topping the charts with dolled-up garage rock. The members then proved they were also equal to their male counterparts in substance abuse, infighting and other band-wrecking skills. That led to the Go-Go’s disbanding in 1985 and, subsequently, to some grim solo careers.

Now they’re back to prove that females, too, can cash in on their legacies. But though they’ve regrouped to promote a new hits package--”a great Christmas gift,” bassist Kathy Valentine reminded the crowd--their 90-minute performance was far from being just a money run.

From the get-go, compact powerhouse Gina Schock wore an infectious grin and attacked her drums with great vigor. Too bad the rest of the band was facing away from her, for, despite her pounding beat, they got off to a tentative start.

Singer Belinda Carlisle--whose voice was obviously filled-out by digital harmonizing effects at the sound board--seemed neither to connect with the lyrics of the first several songs nor particularly to land on the right notes.

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There was scarcely more musical precision from Valentine, guitarist Jane Wiedlin (sporting short, green-tinged black hair) and ex-Bangle Vicki Peterson on lead guitar (subbing for a pregnant Charlotte Caffey). One new song, “Good Girl,” got a decent, if uninspiring, airing, while “Vacation” scarcely got on the road, given Carlisle and the band’s ragged delivery.

But their shortcomings either vanished or ceased to matter by the seventh song, when they kicked into groove with the effervescent power pop of “This Town.”

The show was pure party from that point on, with band members bouncing around the stage, exchanging laughs and seeming to remember the pleasure it is all supposed to be. The audience was way ahead of them, up and dancing to nearly every song in the 21-song set.

The set spanned the group’s early, rough pre-fame numbers like “Fashion Seekers” and “Playing With Ropes” to songs composed for the new hits package, a double CD titled “Return to the Valley of the Go-Go’s.”

Those songs show promise for the full-fledged reunion the group says it is intending this time, especially “Beautiful,” a song detailing an idyllic “bed of roses” life, given an edge by Carlisle’s vocal, which pitched the lyrics somewhere between affirmation and irony.

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It is such unexpected balances that may be the hallmark of the Go-Go’s. Their early efforts were a mix of punky drive and bittersweet pop confection, while later efforts still had a garage sensibility lurking under the smooth production values.

On Sunday, they played with a palpable punch on their old stage burners “Cool Jerk,” “Our Lips Are Sealed,” “Get Up and Go” and “Lust to Love” as well as on the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated,” aptly closing the show with “Let’s Have a Party.”

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Opening act That Dog didn’t seem to want for much, except perhaps a reason to exist. The quartet includes the teen-aged daughters of Warner Bros. Records executive Lenny Waronker (Anna Waronker) and jazz bassist Charlie Haden (twins Petra and Rachel Haden). The group is completed by drummer Tony Maxwell.

Despite their youth and the shadow of famous parents, the group’s 12-song set had an abundance of self-assurance and musical ideas. Though sometimes awry, the vocal harmonies were usually rich and inventive, while the musical backing effortlessly shifted from feedback-spattered grind to soft violin pastorals.

It was all very clever, but, without much evident emotion behind their constructs, their set grew thin long before it ended. Even so, they were a lot more fun than Wilson-Phillips, and they may be more worth watching a couple of years hence.