POP MUSIC REVIEW : Sammy Llanas: Songs in the Key of Desperation

If Sammy Llanas’ solo acoustic show Saturday at the Coach House were an album, there’s only one thing you could call it: “Wisconsin.”

Stepping temporarily out of his role as half of the creative team of the Milwaukee-based BoDeans, singer-songwriter Llanas, a.k.a. Sammy BoDean, sang ode after ode to the average Joes and Marys who struggle to hold onto loves, lives and self-respect in a dream-thwarting world.

Both the acoustic-guitar backing and thematic focus begged comparisons to Springsteen’s “Nebraska” period. Stripped of the BoDeans’ colorful, rootsy arrangements, Llanas’ heartland-rock tunes gained a degree of spontaneity, but suffered somewhat from the monochromatic tone.

Just as Springsteen has gone back time and again to cars and factories, Llanas has a habit of turning to rain and drought as metaphors for the human condition. But he hasn’t always found new hues to brighten up these overworked fields.

In that respect, “Beep, Beep,” one of a handful of new songs he unveiled, was a welcome change of pace. It attempted to be nothing more than a hummable rock ditty, its chorus suggesting “There’s no thing as silly as love.” (Probably true, unless it’s a silly love song about how silly love is.)

His 90-minute set, including about a dozen and a half numbers culled from the BoDeans songbook, underscored the strengths of that group’s music--passionate pop songs about passionate people in desperate situations.

It also pointed up why the once-heralded band never fully delivered on its early promise: Musically and lyrically, they painted themselves into a corner from which they seem to have no intention of leaving. (Worry not, BoDeans fans--Llanas said the group will have a live album out this summer, and another studio album after that.)

Llanas’ signature nasal vocals--he sounds as if he’s lived his life with his belt cinched a couple notches too tight--were wondrously emotive. In “Beautiful Rain,” he let rip with bone-chilling effect the buzz saw growl that he wisely turned to only sporadically.

Still, with Llanas’ neck-veins-a-poppin’ delivery in nearly every song, the edge of desperation that permeates his lyrics lost the impact it could have if he eased back a little more often.

Preceding Llanas was Two-Way Street, an Orange County pop duo that’s been building a following in local restaurants. The 25-minute set’s strengths were sweet high harmonies and crisp acoustic guitar work applied to original songs with accessible melodies. Their lyrics, however, need woodshedding if they are to move beyond stock subjects and sentiments of the “warm summer nights and the first kiss of spring” variety.