Black’s Magic Shows Signs of Reaching Its Limits

Short on hair, long on alienation, preferring a harsh bark to a sweet croon, Frank Black seems to fit the basic alternative-rock mold.

What makes Black different (surely not his shaven-headed Lex Luthor look) is his yearning to break free from the immense gravitational pull of the ordinary, and his recognition that it isn’t so easy.

It’s a poignant realization, and by mining frequently manic rock for poignant effect over his three solo albums (following five albums as boss of the Pixies dating back to 1987), Black has achieved something out of the ordinary in an increasingly ordinary musical form.

“I don’t conform / I wear a different uniform,” Black sang Tuesday night at the Glass House, in the refrain to his show-opening “Freedom Rock.” Next came another defiant declaration of individuality: “You Ain’t Me,” from his new album, “The Cult of Ray.”

But Black, who plays the Coach House on Saturday, seems to be running up against the limits of his genre, in which even an avowed nonconformist can be stuck in uniform, as that “Freedom Rock” refrain notes with an irony that’s easy to overlook.

His 70-minute set (precisely the ordinary length of an alt-rock show, and an ungenerous one given a catalog as extensive as Black’s) primarily registered distance and detachment, not the poignant yearning for transformation that has marked his recorded and onstage best.

There were layers of irony and no small measure of disheartenment in the sight of a mindless mosh pit erupting as Black played “Dance War.” The song’s fast, pummeling, hard-core punk beat touched off the very same ritualized, conformist and musically disrespectful behavior--among a small but insistent contingent--that its lyric mocked.

The sequence--Black played several consecutive mosh-ready songs, just to rub it in--positioned the singer as an orchestrator of bitter ironies, not as the leader of an evening’s expedition to break the bounds of the ordinary. Hardly treating his fans as comrades on such a sojourn, Black, who has been amiably chatty in past shows, was terse and reserved.

Still, there were highlights. “Speedy Marie,” which Black said the band hadn’t played in a year, was a welcome romantic ode in which the singer would alternate between rough yells and yearning sighs within a single line.

“Czar” was a prime example of Black’s love of transformation: a song that takes that pop-cultural epitome of the milquetoast, John Denver, and persuasively transforms him, with selective use of biographical fragments, into a subject for a song of epic sweep.

“Headache” was a terrific barreling pop song, executed with garage-rock verve and sing-along gusto by Black and his players--lead guitarist Lyle Workman and the bass-and-drums team of David McCaffrey and Scott Boutier.

Workman’s throaty-toned, Mick Ronson-style guitar highlighted “You Never Heard About Me,” one of two obscure B-sides that Black pulled out for a change of pace.

But Black’s overreliance on his theatrical yells and gruff, Howlin’ Wolf mannerisms, at the expense of his more melodically grabbing stuff, was a drawback.

Once an engaging presence on stage (his memorable stop at the Coach House on his first solo tour in 1993 climaxed with warm, surprising and thematically trenchant renditions of “Duke of Earl” and the Kinks’ “This Is Where I Belong”), Black was a laconic and predictable one at the Glass House.

Having played a significant part in priming the alternative-rock movement in the late ‘80s, Black played for a half-capacity house and seemed further than ever from reaping the rewards and wide recognition made possible since the 1991 explosion of Nirvana, a band that acknowledged the Pixies’ influence. That’s tough luck, but it’s no excuse to grow sour or slack off in that fight against the ordinary.

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Playing a brisk 35-minute opening set built around his debut album, “Hi My Name Is Jonny,” Black’s protege and label mate, Jonny Polonsky, paid homage to the Beatles’ melodic richness and the Replacements’ way of honoring that richness while making a raucous, tunefully yowled mess of it. With “Half Mind,” an airy melody riding dense, grind-it-out riffs, he also paid stylistic homage to Black’s Pixies period.

In keeping with the forthright title of his album, Polonsky forthrightly introduced each song, a tactic that helped him escape the facelessness of so many opening acts and newcomers. His enthusiasm paid off.

There is nothing original about this young, raw-voiced Chicagoan--his look is even familiar, with the frail frame, tousled mane and schnoz of Bob Dylan.

Polonsky and his appropriately garagey bass-and-drums duo covered the Georgia Satellites’ “Keep Your Hands to Yourself” as if to prove that renewing Berry/Stones licks never fails as long as it’s done with the right juices flowing. Then he veered into “Love Lovely Love,” a guileless Polonsky original with an indelible, celebratory chorus.

It probably wouldn’t be smart to get Polonsky’s record before you’ve checked out the best Replacements stuff and all the classic Beatles and Stones you can afford. But when the old methods are well-applied, adding one more voice to the chorus can’t hurt.

The 800-capacity Glass House, opened by Goldenvoice early this year, is a plausible alternative for modern-rock fans in Orange County.

The Glass House, which has hosted No Doubt, Rancid and Stereolab, among others, with shows by Garbage and Sublime coming up, sits 13 road miles north of the county line, and about 35 miles from South Coast Plaza. It’s a shorter and easier trip than the trek to Hollywood, with free, off-street parking to boost.

The hangar-like rectangular venue isn’t intimate or fancy; it’s all standing room except for a few balcony seats. The sound for Black and Polonsky was not sharp, but adequate, with voices and instruments arriving with decent definition.

* Who: Frank Black. With Jonny Polonsky.

* When: Saturday at 8 p.m.

* Where: The Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano.

* Whereabouts: Take Interstate 5 to the Camino Capistrano exit and turn left onto Camino Capistrano. The Coach House is in the Esplanade Plaza, on the right.

* Wherewithal: $15-$17.

* Where to call: (714) 496-8930.