EBENEZER OBEY/COACH HOUSE: One of these days...

EBENEZER OBEY/COACH HOUSE: One of these days some bright record company marketing executive is going to introduce Nigerian juju music to American dance clubs and make a million--dollars and grateful fans.

Until that happens, juju groups such as Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey and His Inter-Reformers Band will continue playing to a coterie of faithful, as the 14-man group did Wednesday at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano.

The dance circuit would be a natural springboard for exposing the Western mass audience to juju, since it is built on driving rhythms that are so continually creative that even when songs average 10-15 minutes in length, they are never repetitive.

The irony is that despite exotic-sounding group names, songs that are usually sung in the Yoruba language and general lack of radio exposure for African music, Obey proved (yet again) that juju music is every bit as accessible as the catchiest Western pop tunes.

In fact, while such Western performers as Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, the Talking Heads and others have adopted elements of African music in recent years, Obey’s two-hour-plus performance underscored the reciprocal impact Western pop has had on African music.

Some of the R&B; riffs from Obey’s four guitarists could have been lifted straight off old Jackson 5 and Spinners records, while the three vocalists who shared the spotlight with Obey drew as much from the choreography of the Temptations and Four Tops as from traditional Nigerian dances.

For those who missed Obey or his countrymen King Sunny Ade at the Coach House in June and O.J. Ekemode & His Nigerian All-Stars last Saturday at the Music Machine, there’s one last chance before what appears to be a long drought before Nigerian music returns to the Southland: Obey also plays Sunday (Aug. 9) at the Music Machine.

Advice: Go.

LIVE ACTION: Tickets go on sale for two Pacific Amphitheatre shows: Dan Fogelberg (Sept. 19) and Jefferson Starship (Sept. 25). . . . Concrete Blonde will play the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on Aug. 13, followed by Highway 101 on Aug. 14. . . . Children’s Day will play Big John’s in Anaheim on Aug. 15. Firehose’s Aug. 21 show at Big John’s has been canceled.