Family : With Parachute Express, Roxy’s for Kids

Pop music titan Lou Adler, credited with many ‘60s and ‘70s hits--and now a dad to a toddler and an infant--has turned his attention to music for the younger set, with his Ode 2 Kids record label and last summer’s two-day children’s music performance extravaganza at Knott’s Berry Farm.

On Dec. 3, Adler and Parachute Express, a star attraction in the children’s music field, will co-present Parachute’s first “unplugged” concert, at the Roxy, Adler’s 400-seat Hollywood club.

The event is a departure for the popular Parachute trio--Stephen Michael Schwartz, Janice Hubbard and Donny Becker--known for its original music and high-energy, interactive, theatrical shows in large concert halls and theaters.

“What we’re doing is as close to a concert in your living room as we can get,” Schwartz said. Instead of the group’s usual big-sound digital audiotape backup, “we’ll have live musicians--a bass player, a drummer, a keyboard player, maybe a mandolin and fiddle player.”

In addition, Schwartz said, “we’re going to give children and parents an opportunity to hear songs that may be their favorites on records, but that we’ve never performed (live),” such as Hubbard’s ballad about life and death, “The Changing Garden of Mr. Bell.”

Schwartz promises hits from past concerts, such as “Polka Dots, Checks and Stripes” and “Building a House,” and “some surprises.”

Adler hopes that “getting someone like Parachute Express, a group as visible and big as they are,” will be the start of a children’s concert trend at the club. And, during the show, the club’s bars, he assures parents, will be “turned into soda fountains.”

* Parachute Express, Roxy Theatre, 9009 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, Dec. 3 at 11 a.m. $20. Reservations: (213) 480-3232.