Pop Reviews : Jellyfish Recycle the ‘70s With Aplomb

Remember those floppy crocheted hats with panels made from cut-up Coors cans that some people wore in the ‘70s? If that gives you a kick, you probably would have liked seeing Jellyfish at the Roxy on Thursday. If you’re still wearing one, you’re probably in the band.

Bassist Chris Manning was indeed so becapped on Thursday, and if that doesn’t give you a good enough picture, how about “Alice in Wonderland”-meets-”H. R. Pufnstuf” stage decor and finery and a song selection that included the MTV theme (all 10 seconds of it), an old Big Mac jingle (15 seconds) and affectionate versions of songs by Styx, the Archies, Badfinger and Wings? Don’t laugh . . . for these four young Bay Area boppers, that’s the cultural equivalent of rappers sampling James Brown and Funkadelic. As for what that says about the respective cultures, well, make up your own mind.

OK, do laugh. The crowd did; the band did too. (Like they were gonna dress and play like that and expect to be taken seriously.) What makes this a band worth laughing with, though, is the fact that it’s actually quite talented and imaginative in its original material and presentation, as thrift-store-derivative as it is.

Tricky harmonies and complex but catchy arrangements were all executed with aplomb that transcends the campy ‘70s nostalgia, giving hope that Jellyfish can someday bury that nostalgia and progress on its own ‘90s terms if it so chooses. And the only thing that weakened the joke was that L.A.’s Redd Kross has already done it.