Pop : The Alarm Indulges Nostalgia at Hollywood Palladium

No single fashion statement reigned supreme among the fans who filed into the Hollywood Palladium on Friday to see Welsh rockers the Alarm. There were longhairs and shorthairs, a little leather, shades of punk, even a few old “new wave” polka dots. The only thing that appeared to unite this crowd was a median age a shade short of 30.

Is this generation lost between stations (nostalgic for ‘80s post-punk, it was too old--perhaps too white--for the hip-hop explosion)? The Alarm wasn’t 10 minutes into its set before it delivered the obligatory nod to past glory with “68 Guns,” one of its idealistic anthems from the early ‘80s. The crowd remembered that song--and others from that era like “Spirit of ‘76” and “Absolute Reality”--and sang along fervently. But it felt more like an indulgence in nostalgia than a reaffirmation of revolution-style rock.

The band’s newer numbers affirmed the notion of a lost generation: several tunes of homogenized, MTV-style hard rock. Ultimately, the Alarm didn’t succeed in overcoming the standard criticism that it is the perpetual younger brother of U2, and it certainly didn’t signal any new musical directions that the crowd could explore.

The opening act was the Leslie Spit Treeo, a promising young group from Canada trying--like so many others--to cure rock’s middle-age ills by returning to country and folk roots.

(Orange County Edition) The Alarm and the Leslie Spit Tree play the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano, Tuesday and again next Sunday and Monday . Information: (714) 496-8930.