POP MUSIC REVIEW : Peppers Lead Alternative Rock at Palladium

Look who’s the dean of the Los Angeles alternative rock scene:

The Red Hot Chili Peppers?

Yup, the Chili Peppers, those punk-funk-rap-rock party boys once best known for performing wearing nothing but one strategically placed sock each. With X in suspension, the Peppers stand as the local quesos grandes , for better or worse.

It was some of both when the Peps played the Hollywood Palladium on Friday. Clearly the show was a milestone for the band--headlining the 3,000-plus-capacity hall is nothing to sneeze at, especially coming at the time when the group’s latest album, “Mother’s Milk,” is doing well in the college and alternative circles around the country. And the crowd accorded the band a hero’s welcome.

The band’s response to the situation: a show that didn’t deny the leadership role, but didn’t exactly plunge head-first into it, either.

“Chili Peppers music is not normal music,” announced manic vocalist Anthony Kiedis, dressed like a refugee from Ming the Merciless’ minions, early in the show. “Chili Peppers music is to be listened to by your (sexual organs).” But to make that true, the music needs more physical oomph than it had much of the time Friday.

The band could learn something from San Francisco’s Faith No More, once something of a Chili Peppers imitator, which has surpassed the Peps, taking the style to new heights by infusing the punk-rap with molten metal.

But still, with the sweltering Palladium absolutely rocking, there was a triumphant air to the show. The sound filled out in the course of the concert, with young guitarist John Frusciante (who replaced the late Hillel Slovak last year) in particular showing an impressive range of Hendrixiced funk-rock skills.

Versions of songs by George Clinton and a snippet of hard-core L.A. rapper Eazy-E’s “Boys in the Hood” served to define the group’s musical goals; the frantic antics of Kiedis and bassist Flea defined the attitude. And two new songs did make a case for the band’s growth: “Good Time Boys” is the Peppers’ strongest Hollywood anthem to date, while “Knock Me Down” (“If you see me getting high, knock me down”) is a mature, sober response to Slovak’s drug-related death.

What the band’s status means is another matter. The L.A. scene is terribly fragmented and the Peppers--whose audience Friday was skewed heavily to the young Caucasian side of things--seems unlikely to unify it. In the end there was still the impression that the Peppers stand as king of L.A.’s hill--at least in part--by default.

Opening act Mary’s Danish could very well be the dean of L.A. in five or eight years (if there’s any scene left). With its careening kinetics and increasing stage command, the oft-mentioned X comparison increasingly has more to do with the exhilaration of the music than the aesthetics.

Texas’ notorious B.H. Surfers, on the other hand, proved a major disappointment. It’s second-billed set consisted of droning sludge of the anti-rock magnitude--but hardly the artistry--of early Public Image Limited. The film clips of a “Charlie’s Angels” episode projected behind the band were more involving.