POP MUSIC REVIEW : Bloom Off the Roses After Sloppy Palladium Debut?

Six years after a landmark debut album that caused the Stone Roses to be hailed as the future of British rock, the Manchester quartet finally made its Los Angeles debut on Monday night--and the show made you wonder whether the Roses have much of a future at all.

It’s not that Monday’s show at the Hollywood Palladium was a complete disaster.

There were moments when John Squire’s guitar playing and songwriting captivated the packed house, mixing the folkish, melodic elements of the first album with the bluesy, psychedelic haze that dominates much of this year’s follow-up, “Second Coming.”

Yet, there were too many points in the 90-minute set where the band seemed as clumsy and tentative as at a sloppy rehearsal. The pacing was lax and the interaction of the musicians frequently nonexistent.

Like Oasis, another leading British band, the Roses have a deadpan demeanor on stage. Singer Ian Brown’s only trace of showmanship was waving a tambourine over his head between vocals.

One reason for this semi-anonymity is natural shyness. The Roses prefer to remain in the shadows, leaving the flashing lights directed at the audience. That wouldn’t be such a problem if the music was more precise and convincing.

Things started promisingly as the Roses opened with two key songs from the first album, including “I Wanna Be Adored,” whose lively blend of innocence and irreverence summarized the band’s early attitude and appeal.

But the performance started unraveling when the band failed to capture the nuances of “Ten Storey Love Song,” a sweet, tender tune from the new album that should have served Monday as the perfect transition between 1989 Roses and 1995 Roses.

Things spun further out of control when the Roses lurched into the funky, aggressive textures of the new album, only to then step back into a stiff acoustic section before returning to the aggression.

At times, you had the uneasy feeling of sitting in a movie theater, wondering if the projectionist hadn’t put on the wrong reel.

Though Brown’s monotone singing style has a convincing edge on record, his vocals tended to be colorless at the Palladium. That left the burden on Squire and his guitar to supply character and personality to the music.

While Squire is a strong enough talent to do just that, he can’t do it alone--and Mani, on bass, and newcomer Robbie Jay, on drums, seemed uncertain just where the improvising guitarist was headed much of the time.

The answer to the Roses’ future will likely rest in the group’s reaction to Monday’s concert and the rest of its brief, about-to-end, U.S. tour.

If the group thinks everything went fine, they’re in trouble. If they recognize the need to improve their live show and better define their musical direction, they may still have a chance to live up to the early predictions.

The most obvious need is to play more live.

Under the normal progression of a band, the Roses should have played hundreds of shows by now--instead of merely dozens. Much of the last six years was spent either in courtrooms (breaking away from their former record label) or isolated in the studio, trying to live up to the expectations of the first record.

In one of the best songs from the debut album, the Roses thumbed their nose at the old musical Establishment and adult authority in general with the line, “Kiss me where the sun don’t shine / The past is yours, the future’s mine.”

Freed of the distractions of the past six years, the Roses must now live up to that battle cry.