Neil Finn Stands Ready to Ride Pop-Rock’s Roots-Revival Wave

One big part of the appeal of such fast-rising freshman bands as the Strokes, the Vines and the Hives is their common respect for the craft of songwriting and unapologetic love of pop melody.

If this does indicate a public shift from music of anger and aggression back toward insightful and relentlessly catchy pop-rock, Neil Finn, one of the modern masters of pop-rock songwriting, will certainly be armed to cash in.

Just this year, the New Zealander has put out two solo albums--one live, one recorded in a studio--overflowing with the seamless lyrical and melodic inventiveness that has distinguished his music for two decades.

On Wednesday at the House of Blues in Anaheim, the second show on a new tour leg that also stops at that chain’s West Hollywood club tonight and Saturday, Finn built a magnificent two-hour show around material from the more recent release, the 2-month-old “One All.”

Inspired support came from many of the same musicians who have been at his shows since last year, including former Smiths guitarist-songwriter Johnny Marr and ex-Prince sidekick Wendy Melvoin, who has collaborated as a songwriter with Finn recently.

His new songs constitute something so strong, it mattered little how lightly he touched on his formidable catalog from his days in Crowded House and Split Enz, though a solo performance of House’s “Fall at Your Feet” was arguably the evening’s high point.

It also was one of the rare instances in which an audience sing-along transcended mere nostalgic familiarity to become a bone-chilling example of spiritual redemption through communal music-making.

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Neil Finn plays tonight and Saturday at House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. With Ed Harcourt. 9 p.m. $23. (213) 848-5100.