POP MUSIC REVIEW : Primal Scream: Not Just a Party

“Just what is it that you want to do?” the adult voice asked on the audio track played between songs during Primal Scream’s Los Angeles debut Saturday night at the Hollywood Palladium.

Replied a young male’s voice: “We want to be free to do what we want. . . . We want to get loaded. We want to have a good time. We’re gonna have a party.”

The band followed that exchange from an old film soundtrack with a rousing version of “Loaded,” a song that defines in large measure the party-minded doctrine of the emerging dance-rock/rave scene. The song alone is enough of a landmark to give Primal Scream a prominent place in this latest round of psychedelic haze.

Yet there’s a lot more than “Loaded” to explore in the British group’s “Screamadelica” album, an unexpected but assured alliance of trippy ‘60s psychedelia and the relentless if anonymous energy of ‘70s disco. The music sounds both new and reassuringly familiar.

The band--led by singer Bobby Gillespie, a former drummer with the Jesus and Mary Chain--stepped on stage around midnight with the same authority it has on record, turning boldly to its MTV hit “Movin’ on Up” as the second number in the set.

The song--a splash of contemporary dance-rock currents applied to a foundation of gospel and “Let It Bleed”-era Stones strains--is the group’s mainstream calling card, and many bands would have saved it for late in the show to guarantee a strong finish.

But Primal Scream followed it with “Don’t Fight It, Feel It,” a more soulful-techno excursion propelled by Denise Johnson, who was as strong a vocal presence much of the night as Gillespie.

Unlike the unchanging electronic pulse of the records played by deejays before and after the seven-piece group’s set, Primal Scream did have variety--moving from an acoustic country blues to traces of the Jesus and Mary Chain’s romantic obsession in one song, where Gillespie croons, “I want you to kiss me (and) lift me . . . right out of this world.”

On balance, it was a satisfying and colorful performance--stronger than earlier appearances by such contemporary British dance-rock proponents as the Happy Mondays, the Charlatans U.K. and Inspiral Carpets.

Gillespie’s gang had no trouble in delivering the enticing, danceable vigor of the album and it showed a winning willingness to salute its own influences--from a snippet of Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family” to a trashy version of the Stooges’ “No Fun.”

Yet some questions remained. Gillespie is an affecting singer, but he’s not a dynamic performer. There’s something a bit too borrowed about his musical vision. It’s not unreasonable, in fact, to describe Primal Scream as the Black Crowes of the British scene.

The two bands’ musical roots are clearly different--and Primal Scream’s approach is certainly more modern. Like the Crowes, however, the group needs to define itself more fully. Given his passion and songwriting skills, Gillespie may be able to do it.

At this point, however, there was the nagging feeling Saturday that the young British band with the leadership and boldness to really stir things up is still waiting in the wings: the Stone Roses.

* RELATED STORY: F5