De-Punking Riffs

Stiff Little Fingers exploded onto the punk scene back in 1979 as an angry young band. Hailing from war-weary Northern Ireland, the politically charged group mined songwriting ideas buried in its own backyard. Bold anthems including “Alternative Ulster,” “Suspect Device” and “The Troubles” rang out with a raw edge of desperation.

Today, that youthful, rebellious spirit has been slightly tempered by a bit of optimism. In hopes of achieving relevance in the post-punk ‘90s, a revamped lineup--featuring singer-songwriter-guitarist Jake Burns, ex-Jam bassist Bruce Foxton and drummer Steve Grantley, plus touring multi-instrumentalist Ian McCallum--has released a new album, “Tinderbox,” and concludes a 16-date U.S. tour tonight at the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana.

A striking departure from the thrashing guitar/howling vocal sound of yesteryear, “Tinderbox” (Taang! Records) serves up polished, pop-laced rock ‘n’ roll, with soaring vocal harmonies, keyboards, horns and even tin whistle. Most of SLF’s signature sociopolitical declarations have given way to a more personal (“You Don’t Believe in Me,” “In Your Hand”) and hopeful (“You Can Move Mountains”) tone.

Has the defiant SLF gone soft?

“We can still get angry, but it’d be dishonest to scream at the top of our lungs and just play three chords on the guitar,” Burns said by phone before the band’s Friday night gig at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. “We’ve learned to play better than that, but as a songwriter, I haven’t changed all that much.

“We’ve grown up, and I think our music has too. I mean, we still have a healthy cynicism of the people running governments. Only in the past, our rage was [aimed] like a scatter gun. Now, I think we’re more accurate at identifying problems . . . plus a tad more optimism has crept in. For example, the new song ‘You Can Move Mountains’ is something we would have never done in the past.”

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The group left Belfast and settled in England nearly a dozen years ago. Even as SLF has become less overtly polemic, many of its older songs remain relevant. With Northern Ireland in a constant state of upset, “Wasted Life,” which bitterly rejects the paramilitary regime, has sadly lost little of its bite.

“It’s unbelievable that so many people continue to brutalized . . . and killed . . . for ridiculous reasons,” said Burns, 39, SLF’s lone original member. “It’s simply just a shameful part of our human history.”

This month’s headlines have hard-line Protestants assailing British Prime Minister Tony Blair for shaking the hand of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams. Burns reacted with cautious optimism.

“Nothing will be resolved unless the immediate players sit down and talk to each other,” he said. “Otherwise, one symbolic gesture of peaceful conciliation really means very little. Yet, one can always hope. Who knows, at the risk of talking myself out of a job, maybe one day all my bloody tales about Belfast will turn into dusty old folk songs.”

The challenge at hand for SLF is to reestablish itself in a genre that has gone from underground to mainstream with the success of such ‘90s acts as Green Day and the Offspring.

“Believe me, if I knew the secret [of commercial success], we’d pursue it,” Burns said with a chuckle. “But seriously, I think a lot of that arena-level appeal is more of a fashion statement than anything else. Who knows if any of those bands will be heard from 10 years from now?”

He added that he and his bandmates try to attract fans, as they always have, by working hard on new material and then playing it live. The current tour has been drawing young and old concert-goers, but one fan in particular stands out--Oasis’ Liam Gallagher. He approached Burns in a bar before the band’s initial road performance in New York several weeks ago.

“It was about 10:30 in the morning, and we had stopped by this pub just to relax and have a soda or two,” Burns recalled. “The next thing I know, Liam walks up to me, asking if I had an extra ticket to our show that night at the Tramps [nightclub]. It was quite flattering. . . . I told our tour manager to get right on it.

“Overall, it’s been very interesting seeing such a wide spectrum of fans turning out at our shows. We’ve had spike-haired moshers as well as others that could pass for lawyers and doctors. I’ve even met some of our original fans who now have 10-year-old kids--and they brought them along. So it appears there is something cross-generational about Stiff Little Fingers.”

* Stiff Little Fingers, Ganggreen and the Crowd perform tonight at the Galaxy Concert Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana. 8 p.m. $15-$17. (714) 957-0600.