A Knack for Losing Those Catchy Hooks

Pop can be dangerous. In the wrong hands, it’s the cheapest form of musical pandering, disguising mediocre songs under layers of stale ear candy. At its best, pop is both escape and revelation, riding waves of sweet euphoria.

The Knack has been on both sides of that equation, exploding out of the Los Angeles club scene in 1979 with the exuberant No. 1 single “My Sharona,” only to watch its fortunes evaporate soon after. Friday at the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana, the quartet reignited those early strengths--and revealed the same limitations that have hobbled it ever since.

Singer-guitarist Doug Fieger is forever cursed by having written his best material at the beginning of his career, crafting songs that were fresh, catchy and energetic. His early mastery of a simple but alluring pop-rock formula reemerged at the Galaxy most effectively during his handful of top-40 hits, including “Good Girls Don’t,” which had Fieger blowing happily into a harmonica, shaking his head McCartney-style.

Songs from the Knack’s new “Zoom” album reach for that same youthful euphoria, with simple pop chords and a smile, to mixed results. The song “Mister Magazine” had a delicate charm, even if its message about the media was less than clear.

The reunited band’s current sound is pleasant enough but lacks more than a few new tunes that rise above the bright rhythms. Which means the Knack’s success or failure as a creative entity rises and falls on the songs of Fieger. Over the years, those compositions have been occasionally clever and, at their worst, whiny and misogynistic. Catchy hooks are hard to come by, let alone the sort of pop innovation epitomized by the likes of the Beatles.

By the Knack’s second album, 1980’s “. . . But the Little Girls Understand,” that formula was wearing thin. The group’s quick disappearance from the charts meant its pop throne was soon relinquished to a long series of acts, from the Go-Go’s to Hanson. Theirs is a limited legacy, barely more substantial than the Osmonds’.

Adding a twist to the Knack story is the recent recruiting of drummer Terry Bozzio, veteran sideman to Frank Zappa and co-founder of the pop/new wave act Missing Persons, another chart-topping flash in the pan. On Friday, Bozzio banged away at a spectacular array of drums and cymbals that hardly seemed necessary in this context (not that they made particular sense in the ultralight Missing Persons).

By the time the Knack delved into “My Sharona,” fans were happily crowding the dance floor. It was during this song that guitarist Berton Averre performed a surprising masterstroke, firing up an explosive lead during the song’s bridge that inexplicably was never attempted elsewhere. Those kinds of chops would have helped.

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With the Knack’s biggest hit behind them, much of the crowd left before the encore. Those fans missed out on the most satisfying section of the night: a series of well-chosen cover songs ideally suited to the Knack’s abilities.

The band’s smartest move of the show was its version of “That Thing You Do!” Written by Adam Schlesinger of the band Fountains of Wayne for a movie of the same title, the song is designed as a throwback to mid-’60s pop, and it perfectly fit the Knack’s cheery vibe. Also well played was a rave-up of Nick Lowe’s “I Knew the Bride.”

The encore unfortunately slowed to a bluesy, monotonous crawl with an overlong jam on “Don’t Fade Away,” apparently designed for Bozzio to show off his virtuoso chops and equipment. As a show-closing song, it was underwhelming and strangely grim. The best antidote would have been another helping of pure, sugary pop.