A novel group’s plot twist

The Libertines’ show at the Troubadour on Thursday was a loud, taut, propulsive, punk-powered display that gave some hints about why this group has become a phenomenon in its native England.

Just imagine what it would have been like if the whole band had been playing.

In the latest plot twist to one of rock’s most garish recent soap operas, the Libertines’ co-leader, Peter Doherty, has been exiled from the band until he kicks his drug addiction.

The group set the condition after a series of failed rehabilitations and sporadic reconciliations. Doherty once stormed offstage during a show, and there was fighting in the recording studio. The saga’s low point might have been the episode last summer when Doherty burglarized the flat of Libertines co-founder Carl Barat, resulting in severely damaged relations and two months in jail for Doherty.

All this is taking place at a time when the group is releasing its crucial second album and embarking on a demanding concert schedule. U.S. fans will be jumping onto this runaway train in midjourney.

For Barat, though, it’s old news and an unhappy topic.

He thought he’d be getting away from it when he left the domain of Britain’s tabloids, which have documented every break-up and make-up with their famous breathlessness and tenacity. But here he is, sitting in the Troubadour bar the afternoon before the show, being asked again about the last thing he wants to talk about.

“Yeah, it’s pretty much pretty difficult,” he says of performing without his partner. “But I’m doin’ the right thing and staying true to what I believe. It isn’t changing. Pete knows where I am; he knows he’s welcome.”

Barat, 26, is stoic about the emotional toll it’s taking on him.

“You’ve got no choice, so you don’t give up.... I’ve always taken it as it comes, really. Sort of optimism for the future.”

This isn’t the future Barat dreamed about when he teamed up with Doherty in the late ‘90s. With its guerrilla tactics -- including last-minute, unannounced shows at the corner pub and even in their own apartment -- the team quickly drew a following of fans eager for an alternative to the established music machinery.

It didn’t hurt that Doherty and Barat generated creative sparks too. The Libertines, rounded out by bassist John Hassall and drummer Gary Powell, sounded completely distinctive even as they evoked a classic line of British rock influences, from the Kinks, Beatles and Who to the Smiths and the Clash (whose Mick Jones has produced their two albums).

Dashing and scruffy, defiant and vulnerable, they became one of the biggest things in England when Rough Trade Records released their debut album, “Up the Bracket,” last year. It captured the pace, tensions and intensity of London life, as well as a romantic idealism citing medieval Albion and mythic Arcadia.

“The response of the fans was quite riotous,” Barat says. “People feel they are the Libertines and part of it and it’s something shared. In England it’s certainly breaking down a few barriers, which is good. The kids who come to our shows are part of what we do. They really are furiously inspired by what we do.”

“This is the most culturally significant band maybe since punk,” says the band’s manager, Alan McGee, who has been involved over the years with such groups as the Jesus and Mary Chain, Oasis and the Hives. “They’ve inspired a whole generation of new bands. The problem with Britpop was that the bands that followed Oasis were terrible, but the groups that will be coming after the Libertines are really great bands.”

Given Barat and Doherty’s bent for emotional immediacy, it’s no surprise that “The Libertines,” which comes out Aug. 31, is largely a document on the turmoil that’s afflicted the group. Recorded under tense conditions, the album has the live presence the band treasures, and some of the songs are ripped right from the heart of the conflict. In “Can’t Stand Me Now,” the two bandmates argue their positions in alternating verses, then overlap the title phrase into a captivating chorus.

The song came fairly early in the Troubadour show, one of two U.S. dates this week previewing the band’s fall U.S. tour. The hourlong set held the crowd with its loose-limbed, casual precision and turbocharged roar (guitarist Anthony Rossomando is on board as a touring member), but Doherty’s absence deprived it of the charisma and chemistry that he and Barat can conjure together, not to mention the sonic and narrative dimension of the two voices and personalities.

But Barat showed that he can keep this thing afloat by himself, at least for a time, especially when the band softened the attack and let a more reflective side emerge. For the first encore, he sang the new album’s closing song, “Whatever Became of the Likely Lads,” a tender summation and plea whose closing lines ring with longing and uncertainty: “What became of the dreams we had? What became of forever? ... We’ll never know.”

During the afternoon interview, Barat is visibly relieved when the subject changes from mayhem to music.

“Do you like the new record?” he asks with a sudden enthusiasm. “Do you think there’s more to it than just self-obsessed introversion? I’d like it to mean things to people who’ve never heard of the band’s strife....

“I think there’s some optimism going through there.... I’m the world’s biggest cynic, but you have to be optimistic when there’s no choice.”

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The Libertines

Where: Henry Fonda Theatre, 6126 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood

When: 7 p.m. Oct. 2

Price: $18.50

Contact: (323) 464-0808