British Bands Live Up to the Hype

The Charlatans UK were part of a much-hyped English rock scene of the past. Starsailor is at the forefront of a hyped English scene today. At the Palace on Friday, each band not only represented its era commendably, but also transcended it with classic rock values and personable artistic integrity.

The headlining Charlatans’ singer Tim Burgess cut a benignly roguish figure on stage with an Oliver Twist cap and amiably shambling manner. The image underscored echoes of Rod Stewart and Mick Jagger (and occasional hints of Bob Dylan) in his singing, with the band’s solid playing bringing out the Faces and Stones elements in the songs.

But never was the evening given to nostalgia. Such songs as the opening “Love Is the Key” from last year’s “Wonderland” album didn’t have quite the youthful charge of the 1990 semi-hit “The Only One I Know,” but it was more than compensated by a balance of maturity and confidence.

In the course of two hours Friday, the Charlatans displayed depth that eluded Happy Mondays and Primal Scream--two bands that overshadowed them in hometown Manchester’s circa 1990, drug-fueled “Madchester” scene--and a range lacking in that city’s best-known band of recent years, Oasis. Most significantly, after more than a decade of grinding it out, after the death of founding keyboardist Rob Collins in 1997 and after recently being dropped by MCA Records in the U.S., Burgess (now an L.A. resident) still brings a sense of joy to the stage.

Joy was also a key in Starsailor’s opening set, though a more innocent brand. Having only played a few small U.S. clubs before this, the quartet was bursting with enthusiasm to match the youthful promise of singer James Walsh’s poetically inclined anthems and elastic vocals.

Turning up the rock power, the band stepped up impressively to the bigger venue scale, adding dynamic punch to the music and confirming its spot alongside such other U.K. arrivals as Coldplay, Travis and Elbow as a band to watch.