BERLIN STRUTS NEW STUFF, OLD TEASER

Amazing how one song toward the end of a concert can ruin the impression created by everything that preceded it. That’s what happened Saturday at the Hollywood Palladium, where Berlin played its first local concert in over two years.

The L.A. band hit the stage with a blazing, propulsive “Will I Ever Understand You,� and went on to showcase its improved songs and improved playing. Terri Nunn has not only developed considerably as a singer, but is also a stronger performer. Most of the old come-hither, sex-kitten silliness was gone.

By the end of first encore, Berlin hadn’t performed “Sex (I’m a . . .),� the song that made them famous and stereotyped them as rock’s prime teasers. It would have been a classy move not to play it at all, but the band launched into a synthesizer-drenched rendition, with Nunn and John Crawford underscoring the single-entendre lyrics with all the old theatrical sex-play. So much for progress.