Poptopia Offers Sweet Mixture

Pop music is an unshakable hook, a bouncy beat, a “fa-la-la” chorus--something warm, lighthearted and usually a little nostalgic. On the opening weekend of the second annual pop celebration Poptopia, it was clear that today’s impresarios can range drastically beyond the core Big Star/Beach Boys/Beatles sound. Every candy-colored hue of pop was represented at two of Saturday’s events, from ‘60s frat-party pop to Kinks-ian pop-rock, from art-warped, Devo-loving pop to Silver Lake-honed bubblegum-punk.

The day’s events began at Checca, a small bar with a baroque feel in West Hollywood that is mainly known for its drag nights, but which recently became home to the Brit-pop club Cafe Bleu.

Patrons filled the room and spilled onto the patio, a testament to the festival’s growing popularity and the quality of the national acts that organizers Larry Mann and Tony Perkins have collected.

San Diego’s baby-faced Melanies, a talented, tight outfit, worked through a limber set that smacked of the Monkees and ‘80s “paisley underground” stars the Three O’Clock. San Francisco’s Wonderboy delivered a garage-gamy set of power-pop. With a great show of Rickenbackers, peg-leg pants, an ever-present dancing mop-top named Beatle Bob and two songs titled “Jessica,” the afternoon event adhered faithfully to the ‘60s.

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The groups at Saturday night’s show at the Silver Lake club Spaceland played fast and loose with the ‘60s, dosing their own idiosyncratic sounds with hints of traditional pop. Standout sets by the local crew Sissy Bar, ex-Three O’Clock and Jellyfish member Jason Falkner and San Francisco’s dislocated art-core troupe Warm Wires moved from new wave to folk-pop.

“Isn’t this Rap-topia?” said Sissy Bar’s singer Joy Ray before launching into what might have been the poppiest song of the entire night, a bouncy version of Snoop Doggy Dogg’s “Gin and Juice.” In stark contrast to Sissy Bar’s playful, banjo-and-keyboard-driven loopiness, Warm Wires displayed an edgy darkness that rang of the most sophisticated of late-’70s new wave.

With only a worn acoustic guitar, Falkner delivered a soulful and singer-songwriterly solo set of folk-pop that rode on well-crafted words and a moving version of Elvis Costello’s “Beyond Belief.”

The enthusiastic crowds and performers shared casual and jovial camaraderie along with their hunger for a little sugar in their musical mix. The true success of Poptopia, which continues through Sunday at several L.A. clubs, is that--like pop music--it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

* Poptopia information line: (213) 368-8076.