POP MUSIC REVIEW : Scottish Wet Wet Wet at the Roxy
Ever since George Michael became respectable, there’s been a void in pop music’s teen heartthrob sweepstakes. Rick Astley has gotten off to a good start this year, and David Glasper of Breathe shows promise, but the hottest candidate of all may be Marti Pellow, lead singer of the Scottish band Wet Wet Wet.
The quartet, which made its local debut Thursday at the Roxy, is a lightweight but entertaining pop-dance outfit in the tradition of Spandau Ballet and ABC. But while those groups never developed a strong visual presence, Wet Wet Wet has someone with star potential in Pellow, 22. The husky-voiced singer is more aggressively sexual than the courtly Astley or the blandly good-looking Glasper. As he pouted, strutted, wiggled and crouched, the show resembled an hourlong jeans commercial.
Wet Wet Wet--which will be the opening act on Elton John’s fall tour--has been a chart-topping sensation in Britain, but failed to hit the Top 40 with its first U.S. single, “Wishing I Was Lucky.†While most of its “Popped In Souled Out†album is bouncy, danceable pop, the music had more bite on stage, where the group was augmented by four backing musicians. It’s hard to see Wet Wet Wet--the name has got to go--expanding its audience beyond the age of 25, but at least kid sisters of the girls who fell for Rick Springfield in the early ‘80s finally have a pop stud of their own.
The L.A. pop/funk band Double Freak opened with a high-spirited set that suggested an affection for Rufus and Cameo.
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