CAFFERTY DOES SPOOKY SIMULATION OF SPRINGSTEEN

And people thought Bruce Springsteen wouldn’t tour behind his new album. Oh, wait--that wasn’t Bruce at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on Sunday, but an incredible simulation: John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band.

Before we get into all the ways that Cafferty is the Joe Biden of East Coast rockers, it’s important to point out the pluses: He and his five musicians draw on splendid, classic influences; they perform with the energy and muscular force of a first-rate bar band; the early show Sunday was sold out, and the crowd was enormously enthusiastic throughout the 90-minute set.

Other aspects of the show, however, were equally evident but far less positive, namely that singer-songwriter-guitarist Cafferty suffers from a severe Springsteen complex. Worse, his music is Bruce Lite, offering loads of sonic similarities but one-third of the depth, substance and insight of regular Bruce.

At least the stylistic Xeroxing is thorough. From Bob Cotoia’s tinkling piano passages and stabbing organ fills to the ways in which Michael Antunes embroiders the rockers with honking sax runs to such lyrical/musical/song title approximations as “Wild Summer Nights,” “Small Town Girl” and “Voice of America’s Sons,” no Boss stone goes unturned.

But it’s Cafferty who really makes the thing spooky. He goes beyond merely aping Springsteen’s gruff, vein-popping vocal style--way beyond. He moves like Bruce, he does between-song raps like Bruce, he often punctuates those raps with little chuckles like Bruce, he says “Thanks a lot” like Bruce, he hangs his guitar on his hip or behind his back like Bruce, he even protrudes his lower lip like Bruce. Scary. Shameless. Pathetic.