POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Therapy? Gropes for Individuality

Andy Cairns didn’t rip up any pictures of the Pope, but at the Whisky on Monday the singer-guitarist of the band Therapy? (the question mark is part of the name) did have some choice words on growing up Irish. Stressing that the band is from Northern Ireland--not the land of Sinead and Bono--he said, “We’re not leprechauns and we don’t drink Guinness and eat potatoes.”

Unfortunately, that and a crude assault on Irish literary icon James Joyce were the most dynamic moments of the trio’s brief set of power-rockers, which trod the line between industrial and metal without really being either. Still, there’s a sense of individuality to the band--perhaps something rooted in the same provincialism that set apart Belfast forebears Them and the Undertones during the ‘60s British Invasion and the ‘70s punk explosion, respectively.

Second-billed Slug is an L.A. sextet composed of current and former staff members of underground rock radio station KXLU-FM. Fronted by singer Stephen Ratter, who is something like a convulsing Ed Begley Jr., the group steamrollered along with a rumbling intensity that left behind any trace of gimmick, fashion or consciously chosen genre.