A Feisty Spirit at Eve 6, Lit Concert

Conspicuously goofy stage antics are usually a ploy to camouflage sub-par music. That’s not exactly the case with Eve 6. The La Crescenta trio’s music isn’t stunningly original, falling somewhere between Green Day’s catchy punk-pop and the grunge-lite of such outfits as Matchbox 20, but the group plays it with competence and lots of youthful spunk.

The sellout crowd that welcomed Eve 6 to the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana on Sunday was raring to rock and spurred the band on to festive heights. Live, the songs were more full-bodied and edgy than the album versions, and singer-bassist Max Collins’ plucky, puckish charisma added lots of color to the set. His hammy banter sometimes threatened to disrupt his group’s momentum, but at other times the shtick drove the music home. During an “unplugged” interlude, Collins vamped his way through a scrappy rendition of the Divinyls’ 1991 ode to autoeroticism “I Touch Myself” using the microphone as a visual aid. Predictable as the stunt was, Collins did it with enough mischievous flair that it came off sassy instead of sappy.

Local heroes Lit were almost as well-received as Eve 6. They didn’t put on quite as vibrant a show, but the Anaheim quintet fired up its set of chunky, melodic rock with all the enthusiasm of the headliners.

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* Eve 6 and Lit play Thursday and Friday at the House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, 7:30 p.m. Thursday sold out, Friday $15. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the City of Hope. (323) 848-5100.