POP MUSIC REVIEWS : High-Decibel Punk From Viper’s Outsiders

The Neurotic Boy Outsiders, the Viper Room’s Monday night house band, is an unlikely grouping of a Sex Pistol (Steve Jones), a Duran Duran (John Taylor) and two Guns N’ Roses (Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum). Neither as promising nor as terrible as those combined resumes would suggest, the band offers a decent facsimile of anthemic, extra-decibel punk.

The Outsiders’ gigs are typically filled with the same sharp riffing that guitarist Jones has been playing since the Pistols emerged in the mid-’70s. It worked best this week on such punk-era nuggets as the Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog” and the Clash’s “Janie Jones.”

But this is essentially a band of sidemen without a strong vocalist. It’s been a series of weekly surprise guest singers who have ended these midnight shows with some fire. This week it was Billy Idol and Duran’s Simon LeBon.

The moment LeBon appeared on stage, the mood wilted from edgy punk to ridiculous sass. It took Idol’s show-closing appearance to bring the night back into focus. Looking like the spiky-haired punk he was at the beginning of the ‘80s, he sneered through the Monkees’ “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” and the Pistols’ “Pretty Vacant.”

When the 90-minute set came to a close, Jones told the crowd that next week’s gig would be their last. Not the end of an era, perhaps, but at least a strangely entertaining flashback of rock styles.

* The Neurotic Boy Outsiders play on Monday at the Viper Room, 8852 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, 11:30 p.m. $15. (310) 358-1880.