Verve Pipe Delivers Some Solid Tunes but Few Standouts

The Verve Pipe’s hit single “The Freshmen” attracted college listeners with its lilting melody and dramatic subject matter: two young men’s bewildered musings following an ex-girlfriend’s suicide. On Tuesday at the El Rey Theatre, the band’s elastic guitar riffs and frontman Brian Vander Ark’s wistful, raw-edged vocals made the song stand out from the mostly generic alternative rock in the hourlong set.

Headlining a bill that also featured fellow fledgling alterna-popsters K’s Choice and Tonic, the road-seasoned Michigan quintet drew largely from its 1996 major-label debut album, “Villains.” The players’ dense aggregation of influences includes Beatles psychedelia, ‘80s new wave and ‘90s aggro-pop, and the best material balanced these disparate elements. The title track’s blend of a pop refrain, dramatic guitar work and Vander Ark’s impassioned vocals made for some fairly rockin’ bombast, a la U2’s early works.

However, most tunes left little impression beyond being distinctly reminiscent of such pop stars as Live and Bush. The Verve Pipe’s appreciation for others generally overshadowed its own work, although Vander Ark’s reflections occasionally struck an original chord, as with the trance-like “Veneer,” his celebration of a favorite freeway route.

The hints of psychedelic rock that peeked through the performance came to a head during the encore, as members of both opening acts joined the Verve Pipe for a lively, sprawling jam on the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” and “The End.” It was an upbeat, fun closing note--maybe a little too much fun, as it effectively obliterated most of the band’s songs from memory.