Saturday Night Specials’ Second Round

If at first you don’t succeed, wait 16 years and try again.

From 1979 to 1981, the Specials, from Coventry, England, ignited the “2-Tone” ska-and-rock movement that triumphed in Europe but found only a cult audience in the United States.

Now, rock influenced by brisk, bouncy Jamaican ska rhythms is a golden, even multiple-platinum, thread in the American pop weave, thanks to hit singles or albums by the likes of No Doubt, Rancid, the Offspring, Sublime and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. So the Specials are back, with four of the seven original members trolling for a new record contract and, they hope, a rewarding sail on ska’s high tide.

If the big push is on, the Specials made sure that fun eclipsed naked careerism Saturday night at a sweaty Galaxy Concert Theatre crammed with fans far too young to have caught the band’s first go-round. Whether showcasing new material (a so-so 1996 comeback album, “Today’s Specials,” of pop and reggae covers) or playing nuggets from the 2-Tone days, the Specials emphasized energy, tunefulness and showmanship, centered on a highly watchable front line.

Singer Neville Staple (Staples in the old days, he seems to have lost the “s” that the Stones’ Keith Richard[s] gained) bounded about the stage with a leaping athleticism at least equal to that of new-ska darling Gwen Stefani. Lead guitarist Roddy Byers combined slicked-back cool with the kinetic guitar slashing of a Mick Jones. His playing was steely-sharp. Lynval Golding, on rhythm guitar, sporadically revved up to match Staple’s bounce-factor. Along with the five other players, they connected easily with the percolating fans.

Seven new songs accounted for about a third of the 80-minute set. They were catchy, although it was not clear, given the vagaries of concert sound, whether they had the lyrical bite and storytelling dimension of the early Specials. “Bonedigging,” a tense rock feel with a springy ska giddyup rhythm, sounded promising, and “It Don’t Make It All Right” returned to an old theme with its bittersweet anthem chorus against racial hatred.

But the Specials missed Terry Hall, once the foremost singer in its tag-team vocal approach. In the old days, Hall, a solo act in England, gave the band its sharpest edge, singing with a snide, angrily disdainful yet sardonically funny cast that paralleled Mick Jagger circa “Satisfaction,” “19th Nervous Breakdown” or “Mother’s Little Helper.”

Byers took over Hall’s parts on some of the oldies, including “Nite Club” and “Too Much Too Young,” but his voice lacked the sting for their acerbic humor. Staple’s gruff, husky voice makes him more of a solid character actor than a leading man.

Although the Mighty Mighty Bosstones have shown that a vocally meager band can reap large rewards, the Specials’ second try would have been better with a first-class lead voice.

Second-billed Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, from Eugene, Ore., sandwiched clever, sharp ‘30s and ‘40s retro-swing around a mid-set helping of songs grounded in ska rhythms and punk-tinged anthem rock. The ska and punk stuff was only OK, but the swing was special. The brassy sound and singer Steve Perry’s hipster delivery gave the band the stylistic snap to please swing revivalists, and Perry’s sharp, smart songwriting added substance for those who want more than nostalgia.

Tijuana No, the politicized band from Mexico, relied on a combination of ska and hard-core punk rhythms but forgot to bring melody into the mix, except on a concluding cover of the Clash’s “Spanish Bombs.” Angry commitment, but with a humorous tinge, did come across in the Spanish lyrics, which might as well have been in Swahili, given the audio mix.

*

With his John Lydon-like head of snaky dreadlocks, singer Luis Guerena had a wild agitator’s look, but a homosexual epithet, directed at ska fans for not heeding his signal to mosh, made one question the liberal bent of this would-be liberator.

In one number, Guerena mockingly goose-stepped and donned a Chaplinesque mustache in a far-fetched likening of Pete Wilson and other Prop. 187 backers to Adolf Hitler. Does cutting off benefits to illegal immigrants compare to ordering methodical mass murder? And since he seems to share Hitler’s antipathy toward gays, would it be far-fetched to suggest that Guerena save a raised-arm salute for himself?