They’re Taking Up the Rebel-Rock Cry

SAN FRANCISCO —  There was a time in rock ‘n’ roll when teenagers looked in a mirror to check their ducktail haircuts or perhaps their dance steps before heading to a concert.

Watching the Anger Management Tour on Friday at the Cow Palace here, you could picture many in this audience practicing their scowls.

Where pop heroes once asked fans to raise their voices against injustice in the world, Limp Bizkit and Eminem only want you to raise your middle finger at the world.

At least that’s a black-and-white way of looking at what happened when 14,000 fans packed the cavernous old arena. And there is a bit of truth in those contrasting images. But there’s also a bit of revisionist history in them.

Ever since Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones, rock has been a social laboratory in which young people deal with the various influences that confront them. The music has been about sex, drugs, independence, anger, insecurity and idealism.

It has been sometimes liberating, sometimes ugly, and there are bits of both elements in Eminem and Limp Bizkit, two of the most notorious attractions in contemporary pop.

My guess is that parents, curious about what their youngsters see in these acts, would be alarmed by some moments of the five-hour show, including the stag-party humor and casual drug references in Eminem’s set. But they would mostly be struck by the sense of deja vu in the tour, which stops Tuesday at the Arrowhead Pond.

In a building where countless rock bands, from the Rolling Stones to Nirvana, have preceded them, Limp Bizkit and Eminem built their lengthy sets around the same kind of spectacular fireworks and lavish staging that such scary monsters as Alice Cooper and KISS employed.

Cooper gave us a decapitation in the ‘70s, so Eminem strikes back with an electrocution scene. KISS, among others, brought fireworks and lasers to concerts, so Limp Bizkit brings more of them. I stopped counting the fireworks after the 20th one and the jet streams of fire after maybe the 30th.

After a brief, punchy opening set by Xzibit, who appears to be on the verge of becoming the next huge crossover star in rap, the stage was given over to the well-received Papa Roach, a quartet from nearby Vacaville that fits rather anonymously into the pack of hard-rock bands combining tales of painful adolescence with convulsive, sledgehammer music.

Then came Eminem, a studio master who is aware enough of live rap’s limitations to dress things up with as many visual aids as possible--including a short video that opened the set and a cartoon in which he is a superhero of sorts who meets some of the “South Park” gang.

In the opening video, we are taken “Blair Witch” style on a spooky journey to a mysterious house, where the monster turns out to be . . . well, guess who. The video ended abruptly and Eminem appeared on stage, standing in front of a replica of the house, holding a chain saw and wearing one of those hockey masks that has become a horror-movie staple.

The skit kicks the set off nicely, showcasing the edgy humor that is evident in much of his music. There is much offensive imagery in that music, but the Detroit rapper’s forte is exaggeration. He’s not just killing his wife and his mother in songs, he’s killing everybody, including his record producer, Dr. Dre. On his latest album, “The Marshall Mathers LP,” he even warns any listener who misunderstands the songs, “I’ll kill you.”

Eminem’s performance of “Stan” was easily the highlight of the night. The song, from the “Mathers” album, is partially a warning to his young fans not to emulate the shocking behavior in his songs. On both the single and in the new video, the story is set against the haunting strains of a Dido recording, “Thank You.”

The English singer has performed “Stan” with Eminem on some tour stops, but she wasn’t here, and the rapper asked the audience to help him out. As Eminem held the microphone to the audience, thousands began singing the tune’s haunting refrain--and it was a magical segment.

The rest of the set, however, had problems. Despite his often dazzling wordplay and a remarkable, high-speed rapping style, Eminem had difficulty competing live with the colorful video versions of his songs, especially “The Real Slim Shady.” Things also bogged down when he kept bringing out rap cohorts to share the stage.

Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst is nowhere the creative talent that Eminem is, but he is an effective presence. Despite the anger in many of the songs, he has an unpretentious manner--he seems so thankful to simply be on stage that he reminds you of a fan who won a contest to be a rock star for a night. And you can understand why he feels lucky. Like Papa Roach’s, his music is neither artful nor original. It is a secondhand version of ideas pioneered by more challenging bands.

As Limp Bizkit ground out a numbingly repetitive, hard-edged sound that seemed like the rock equivalent of a migraine, however, Durst bounced about the stage as if he had springs in his shoes.

The group’s opening tune, “Hot Dog,” is a funny piece of irreverent rock, a satirical number built almost entirely around the F-word--repeated 46 times by Durst’s own count. Unfortunately, nothing else approached that humor or goofball commentary.

Durst’s main theme is striking back at those who have wronged him--and it’s a large list. As streams of fire leaped from containers on stage, Durst sang about breaking this or burning that down. Some of the lyrics would sound almost demonic if anyone acted on the words. But there’s more a sense of therapeutic release about Limp Bizkit’s game plan on this tour than any serious attempt to incite action.

Most of the fans pumped their fists in the air and sang along with Durst, but the mood was never threatening. After the show, it was hard to find a scowling face as fans headed to the parking lot. There were mostly smiles. Isn’t that what anger management is all about?

* Limp Bizkit, Eminem, Papa Roach and Xzibit play Tuesday at the Arrowhead Pond, 2695 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim, 7 p.m. Sold out. (714) 704-2500. Limp Bizkit, Godsmack, DMX and Sinisstar play Friday at the Great Western Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood, 7 p.m. $42.50. (310) 419-3100.