Matchbox Strikes When Not Doing Ballads

Experience does count for something. Which is true enough even for young masters of the fickle Top 40, as Matchbox Twenty demonstrated Tuesday at Wilshire Ebell Theatre, part of a tour of clubs and small theaters to launch its new album, “Mad Season.”

The Florida band remains hobbled by its commitment to forgettable soft-rock balladry, but it performed with more fire on Tuesday than it did in its shows here in 1998, finding moments of inspiration in some unexpected material, including a Waylon & Willie hit.

Matchbox’s better moments were nothing less than what one might expect from a band with four hit singles on its debut album, “Yourself or Someone Like You.” Unfortunately, too much of what was left in the two-hour performance was still innocuous stuff, usually well-played but utterly faceless.

At the center of that sound were the anxious vocals of Rob Thomas. He’s a proven hit maker, a fact dramatically underlined last year by his guest vocal on Santana’s “Smooth.” It is the most memorable recording Thomas has done, suggesting that his torrid love ballads are better served by a more aggressive sound.

Matchbox Twenty’s dual guitar attack was at times jangling and forceful, but rarely dynamic in any memorable way. But a five-man horn section was briefly brought onstage to bolster the sound, and the band found a little soul in Ed Bruce’s “outlaw” anthem “Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” which also was a hit for Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings.

The energy grew every time Matchbox Twenty branched out beyond the rock ballad formula. “Crutch,” a song from the “Mad Season” album, actually allowed lead guitarist Kyle Cook to cut loose with forceful melody lines, set across a pounding beat.

Too bad he was either unwilling or unable to show those chops more often. If the band is to have any impact beyond the pop charts it will need to find that creative energy more often. Either that or see if Santana is available.