Pop Music Reviews : A Rich, Forceful and Surprising Pere Ubu at the Roxy

“From our point of view, this has been two steps short of a disaster,” singer David Thomas informed the Roxy audience at the end of Pere Ubu’s show Thursday. That probably came as news to most of the crowd, who had seemed to enjoy the veteran Cleveland band’s accessible but still quirky brand of pop-rock.

“This isn’t how rock ‘n’ roll’s supposed to be,” the rotund Thomas continued. But, perhaps overreacting, he abandoned his lecture in exasperation when the crowd wouldn’t keep quiet. “Let’s get out of here,” he said to the band before kicking off the final encore.

Too bad, because it would have been enlightening to know the reasons for his dismay. Earlier, the beret-wearing singer, who resembled Ralph Kramden impersonating a French painter, had engaged in some verbal scraps with a fan at ringside and had fumed about sound problems. But the music itself, mainly from the new “Worlds in Collision” album, was rich, forceful and often surprising.

Still, there was a definite flatness and lack of spark, not so much in the playing as in the overall atmosphere, the connection between band and listeners. Ever since Pere Ubu emerged as an underground force in the late ‘70s with its art/punk/industrial fusion, Thomas and company have crusaded against cliche and complacency, and a set that might have satisfied most pro groups could still fall short of their ideal. Thomas’ final words--”I’m sorry we couldn’t be friends”--might have told the story. Pere Ubu also plays tonight at Bogart’s in Long Beach.