POP MUSIC REVIEW : An Addiction to Schmaltz Hinders Perry Performance

Somewhere inside Steve Perry, there’s a Broadway-style ballad singer struggling to get out.

He should be on a theatrical stage belting out flowery tunes from “Carousel” and “Oklahoma!,” not squandering that grand, soaring tenor on plain old pop-rock songs, as he did Thursday in the opener of a three-night, sold-out stand at the Pantages Theater.

Technically speaking, he has one of the best voices in rock--the classiest set of pipes this side of Meat Loaf. But as a singer-songwriter, Perry has an apparently incurable addiction to schmaltz, still preferring saccharine romantic tunes, just as he did when singing lead for the rock band Journey from 1978-87.

On his solo albums, 1984’s “Street Talk” and the current “For the Love of Strange Medicine,” he really pulls out all the schlock stops. There’s nothing daring or hard-edged about songs like “Oh Sherrie,” “Foolish Heart,” “Missing You” and “Somewhere There’s Hope”--the highlights of his Pantages show.

Even the rock trappings--the noisy accompaniment of his four-piece band--didn’t dilute the syrupy quality of these songs.

But you have to give him his due. On his first tour since Journey broke up in 1987, Perry showed he can still turn an audience on. The crowd was in sheer ecstasy most of the time. Clearly, Perry’s crown as rock’s King of Schmaltz is secure.