Party 3 Doors Down? Nope, no fun in sight

A band like 3 Doors Down is necessary. It helps keep things in perspective, an utterly mediocre band against which to judge more memorable rock acts. It’s also a mystery: How can a young group that’s sold 11 million CDs in the U.S. and charted six No. 1 singles not sell out one night at the Wiltern LG?

That’s where 3 Doors Down landed Wednesday, demonstrating once again that popular consensus does not necessarily breed popular passion. The hits “Kryptonite” and “Duck & Run” are catchy enough tunes for the clock radio. But at the Wiltern, 3 Doors Down played one huge hit after another, leaving no impression at all and generating little dancing in the crowd or even much movement.

Despite loud guitars and big, heavy drum beats, the music was blunted into a sound soft and shapeless, delivered with less energy than a Michelob commercial. The devil’s horns gesture flashed by guitarist Chris Henderson was never more meaningless.

The band’s newest album, “Seventeen Days,” is nicely produced, unobtrusive rock and yearning, teary ballads. It’s also a sound so lacking in personality that the mere presence of veteran rock radio shouter Bob Seger on the track “Landing in London” comes off as a revelation by comparison.

3 Doors Down hails from Escatawpa, Miss., and makes bloodless workingman’s rock and appeared at the Wiltern on a stage decorated with giant, moving gears and manly sheets of corrugated steel.

Singer Brad Arnold performed with a fitting heartland drawl, appearing in a sleeveless denim shirt, his hair combed into a fake Mohawk for a wild night out, the result less punk than Springsteen. He must have felt it necessary, since the rest of his bandmates looked as if they were dressed to walk the dog or spend an afternoon hanging wallpaper.

When the musicians did manage to get their blood boiling enough to kick out the jams, the result was something like the fictional band Blues Hammer from the film “Ghost World” and just as irritating and laughable: all noise and no inspiration.