POP MUSIC REVIEW : Femmes Give a Career Retrospective

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — Is rock still allowed to be desperate but not serious?

With Hole, Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden and other ultra-sincere icons mining rage and pain from the depths of their souls, I-really-mean-it-man seems to have become the watchword of the moment.

Violent Femmes and its singer-songwriter Gordon Gano--who kicked off their Southland swing at the Coach House here on Tuesday--have reaped greater rewards than most from teen Angst. “Violent Femmes,” the Milwaukee trio’s 1983 debut album, has become a slow-building classic, selling well over 1 million copies on the strength of its anthems of adolescent rage and frustration.

But even the 19-year-old who recorded those songs kept a sense of ironic distance from his desperation. Gano’s exaggerated, comical whine of a wise-guy’s voice and his wry lyrical touches put a cushioning spin on his darkest declarations. Even if his characters’ frustration and anger are truly felt, the songs’ degree of detachment makes their threats of vengeance and suicide seem more like steam-venting and self-dramatization than blueprints for action.

At the Coach House, the Femmes didn’t seem at all burdened by the issues of authenticity that consume some of their younger peers. Consequently, they can do shows like this 2 1/4-hour,30-song career retrospective that was fun, diverse and well-played, without any dull patches. It was, however, less than cathartic. Ironic or humorous distancing does have some drawbacks.

* Violent Femmes play Friday at Bridges Auditorium, Claremont Colleges, Claremont, 7:30 p.m. $15. (909) 621-8032; Saturday at the Hollywood Palladium, 6250 Sunset Blvd., 8 p.m. Sold out. (213) 962-7600; Sunday at the House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Blvd., 9 p.m. $23.50. (213) 650-1451.