Heavy Accent on ‘Acappellafest’

Even doo-wop singers need respect. And at Saturday’s “World Acappellafest L.A. ‘98” at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, instrument-free ensembles offered a relentlessly upbeat blend of voices while calling on the recording academy to create a separate a cappella category in the Grammy Awards.

In the first of Saturday’s two concerts, the Nylons, the Bobs, the House Jacks, Spiral Mouth and the Alley Cats played afternoon sets with barely a tambourine for accompaniment. The music performed Saturday leaned heavily toward white-bread pop and novelty songs, with scant evidence of gospel or serious jazz in the house. The Nylons did bring a showy, theatrical flair to their headlining set. The Canadian quartet performed some old-school doo-wop, including a spirited “One Fine Day.” The Bobs performed jokey tunes about leisure suits, dogs and passing gas, offering more jokes per minute than a Barenaked Ladies concert. Their version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” was alternately soothing and grating. The L.A. quintet the House Jacks made funk-flavored pop with impressive vocal chops that were wasted on lightweight material.

The afternoon’s most energetic performance was by Spiral Mouth, a young L.A. group that brought a hip-hop sensibility to its brand of rock and soul. Opening the day was the Alley Cats, a retro doo-wop quartet that worked best with vintage ‘50s material.