MUSIC / POLYCHROME : Tunes to Cry By : The band’s sad, introspective acoustic sound can be heard at Santa Barbara’s Wildcat Lounge.

The Wildcat Lounge in Santa Barbara was as raucous as Don Knotts whistling in the back yard.

It’s the place around the corner from Alex’s Cantina where seldom was heard a witless “wahoo” for any pro football team, because on TV in the bar it was none other than “The Fall of the Roman Empire” on the American Movie Channel. Of course, the sound was turned down and Sir Alec Guinness as Marcus Aurelius, seemed to be lip syncing a George Thorogood song, which gave the whole thing a clearly surreal edge.

Once a week the Wildcat Lounge has acoustic night. Next Wednesday it will be Polychrome, well, at least half of Polychrome--but the important half--singer Ginny Benson and guitarist Duncan Wright. And The Broadway across the street is open until 9 p.m., if you can drag yourself away from the free popcorn, plain or cheesy at the Wildcat.

During happy hour, you can take your chances with a chocolate martini--OO7 would probably just shoot the bartender. Near show time, around nine-ish, you can mostly stand around, since by then, most of the booths and seats are taken. And there are the assortment of pasty-faced types, looking all serious and dressed in black, blowing cigarette smoke in your face.

“We attract a mixture of students, liberals and people that like all kinds of songs--the lyrics and Ginny’s singing. We pack this place,” said Wright, the guy with the British accent who wasn’t lying.

Last time at the Wildcat, the band had more roadies than band members as three dudes carted in all sorts of equipment. It belied the notion that “acoustic night” meant traveling light with one guitar case per person. If these two had much more equipment, it could have been a Guns N’ Roses concert.

The major attraction of Polychrome is not, of course, AMC with the sound off, but Benson with the sound cranked up. She has one of the more powerful voices on the local scene, any local scene. She could knock over the columns on “The Fall of the Roman Empire.”

She survived a dozen years of classical voice training in opera before moving to S.B. from L.A. five years ago. Benson can hang with Natalie Merchant or any of this week’s new, hot female vocalists, and fortunately, Polychrome doesn’t do any opera songs.

“Our name, which means many colors, gives us a certain license to do what we want,” said Wright. “Obviously, when we play with the full band, we have a stronger rock element. I think when we play, it’s sort of a Manchester kind of thing with a lot of ‘60s influences such as Jefferson Airplane and the Byrds. There’s a lot of jangly guitars in our songs.”

There’s also a lot of Angst in Polychrome. Happily ever after isn’t happening in their songs. Polycrisis is more like it.

Despite being such an overpowering presence on the stage, Benson doesn’t write the songs. Wright does. Most of the songs are so sad, even Mike Ditka wouldn’t know whether to hang himself, hang everybody else or just cry. Most memorable is the off-the-wall, yet perfectly on-the-money relationship song, “Love You/Hate You.”

“I guess the songs are pretty sad and introspective reflections on psychological deficiencies,” said Wright, saying a mouthful.

Polychrome keeps busy playing at least once a week, sometimes more, which is a lot. Even though there are about a million bands in S.B., there are almost that many venues to play, which can’t hurt.

Besides packing the Wildcat, Polychrome also packs the usual venues with the usual suspects all up and down State Street: the Brewhouse, Joseppi’s, Zelo and the Calypso.

The band has shared the bill with such local luminaries as Spencer the Gardener, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Ladybug Garden, Zoo Story and J.D.’s Last Ride. They’ve opened for national acts, Violent Femmes and Billy Bragg.

Half the band usually doesn’t show up half the time because they’re in other bands. Drummer Mick Flowers is also in Woodburning Project and bassist Scot Alexander is in Life Talking.

“Ginny and I talked about being in a band more than a year ago,” said Wright. “She was singing jazz and I was in Nothing, and before that a few bands in England. The first Polychrome gig was November, 1991, at Chase at the Beach, now the Blue Dolphin.

“Santa Barbara is a great place to start from and there’s more bands per person than any other town. It’s not too far from L.A. and last time we played there, three record company people were in the audience. We’re looking to keep playing in L.A. There’s nothing like standing in front of a bunch of people and kidding yourself that they love you.”

Yet, someone must love Polychrome. Its first tape, ‘See the Colors Run,” is available in local stores.

* WHERE AND WHEN

Polychrome at the Wildcat Lounge, 15 W. Ortega St., Santa Barbara, Wednesday, 9-ish. Admission is free. 962-7970.