Lit’s Antic Playfulness Upstages Less Than Memorable Material

A pop hit is a beautiful thing. It will echo in your mind for months, decades. But who really needs to hear an entire album by the likes of Jennifer Lopez, or Blind Melon, or Mungo Jerry . . . or Lit?

Lit is another pop-punk quartet out of Anaheim, and its “My Own Worst Enemy” hit is undeniably catchy and fun, despite the sort of endless radio airplay that would rob any song of freshness and soul. So as the band launched into the song midway through its show Friday at the Hollywood Palladium, the crowd leaped ecstatically into the air. And when singer A. Jay Popoff stopped long enough to allow the crowd to sing as one big chorus, it was a predictable but powerful moment.

But the band has little else musically that’s likely to linger in anyone’s skull. It was all punk rock crafted into upbeat, up-tempo, monotonous chunks. Despite the occasional likes of “My Own Worst Enemy,” Lit’s songwriting seemed limited.

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The band managed to keep its audience entertained and engaged with an energetic goofiness not much different from the Blink-182 persona. A fan tossed a shiny red bra to the stage, so Popoff immediately tried it on. And when Lit launched into the funky intro to the O’Jays’ “For the Love of Money,” the band was happily showered by a painful storm of spare change from the crowd.

But that single-minded attitude too often overwhelmed the music itself. A rendition of the Aretha Franklin hit “Chain of Fools” was turned into just another pop-punk nugget indistinguishable from the rest of the indistinguishable set.