POP MUSIC REVIEW : STILL UNRULY AFTER THESE 5 YEARS : Replacements at UCI Play Raw, Emotional Music

The Replacements have matured to the point where their live shows hardly ever collapse into drunken tantrums anymore, but that doesn’t mean they have outgrown their capacity for chaos.

There were times during their concert Saturday night at UC Irvine’s Crawford Hall when the rock band from Minneapolis sounded like a loud, formless, lurching ball of confusion--drums thumping stiffly, guitars scraping and blaring at cross purposes and singer Paul Westerberg barking with all the melodiousness of an overexcited basset hound.

But when the Replacements harnessed their sound and locked into a rough coherence, they showed why they are one of the best rock bands of the 1980s, a group whose raw, unfettered and uncalculatingly emotional music stands as a denial of all the slick contrivance that tries to pass itself off these days as rock ‘n’ roll.

It was the harnessed--well, the loosely harnessed--Replacements who predominated this time out, making for a show that was powerful and bracing, despite its chaotic stretches.

One might wish that the Replacements could translate to the stage the more honed and disciplined version of themselves that has come across in the unbroken string of fine records they have released in the last 5 years. But maybe that sort of maturity would diminish the blast of passion that came through much of the time at Crawford Hall (a fancily named basketball gym with built-in stage). If that is the trade-off to be made, it’s best that the Replacements remain the unruly, obstinate rock Holden Caulfields that they are.

Hitting the stage in an expansive mood, the Replacements pounded hard early on, peaking with a ferocious version of “Anywhere’s Better Than Here,” one of eight songs they played from their most recent album, “Don’t Tell a Soul.”

While the album finds the Replacements delving into more tempered, atmospheric rock than in the past, many of the new songs came across live as brash power-rockers. It was as if the Replacements wanted to show their fans that they aren’t losing their edge. They proved their point with a mostly thunderous show played at screaming volume.

“Anywhere’s Better” was among the best of the blazing numbers. Bassist Tommy Stinson started the song by ripping off his bow tie and emitting a bloodcurdling cry. Watching Stinson sing backing vocals--his eyes wild, his uplifted face straining toward the microphone--was more interesting than watching the lead singer of most other bands.

Westerberg is just as intriguing. He is a scrawny, intense front man with a balky voice that rasps and frays and cracks in ways that would signal blatant ineptitude in most singers. Instead, Westerberg’s technical lapses conveyed a rush of naked feeling too urgent to observe such musical niceties as pitch control.

It’s a shame that Westerberg remains self-conscious about singing the pretty, introspective ballads that grace Replacements albums--which could add variety and intimacy to their shows.

“We’ll bring it down and do a couple of quiet ones we’re sure you’re dying to hear,” he told the audience at one point. “Like it or not, (expletive deleted), we’re going to play it.”

But when the first of the promised quiet songs, “Nightclub Jitters,” turned up flat (too kind a word, really, for an utterly oafish display), Westerberg cut the number short by buzzing a Bronx cheer into his microphone, and the Replacements went back to the rockers.

“Asking Me Lies,” a failed attempt to sound funky, and the humorous but slight “Waitress in the Sky” made for some flatness in the middle of the 90-minute show.

But most of the 26 songs the Replacements played, including a couple of obscure cover tunes, were top-notch material. Setting aside their old habit of building a set haphazardly, they seemed to have given thought to their song sequencing.

“The Ledge,” a stormy, harrowing song about suicide, gave way to “Darlin’ One,” a comforting, soaring valediction. The main body of the show ended with “Unsatisfied” and “We’ll Inherit the Earth,” two forceful, emotionally complex expressions of youthful anguish and alienation.

Capping the two excellent encores were “Alex Chilton” and “Left of the Dial,” anthems celebrating the spirit of rock music that puts the dictates of honesty and passion before the demands of mass popularity.

At their best, when they were playing with focus as well as force, the Replacements were a proud embodiment of those values. With lapsed leaders like the Who and the Rolling Stones preparing to debase themselves with stadium gravy runs, it’s good to have somebody to remind us what true rock values are.

As for the opening band, an obscure group called Jack Newman and the Lemmings, the charitable thing would be to say that they are not yet ready for prominent exposure. Those who had to sit through their set of wooden, obnoxiously sung, thrash-metal-and-garage rock may well have been less charitably inclined and conceived a hearty wish for the Lemmings to find a cliff and let nature take its course.