Pretenders, B-52’s Prove They Can Still Entertain

There was nothing restless or probing in the backward-looking sets the Pretenders and the B-52’s played Sunday at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. But there was enough pure musical pleasure to make it a satisfying night. If this was rock accommodating to the “that’s entertainment” ethic of pre-rock generations, then maybe getting old, creatively speaking, is tolerable, if not exactly welcome.

Now in her late 40s, the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde remains a great rock star who lives up to the promise she made in the Pretenders’ career-launching hit, “Brass in Pocket”--to use everything at her disposal to “make you see I’m special, so special.”

Her confident, strutting carriage, her mobile face and pantomiming hands, and especially her complex, undiminished voice that’s now steely, now tender--all proclaimed a distinctive self and commanded attention as only the elite group of most-watchable rockers can.

But Hynde can’t, and didn’t, pretend that her songwriting has been as impervious to time as her gift for performing. “Legalize Me,” the only new song of her 75-minute set, was bashed out as the opening number, when the sound mix hadn’t coalesced. The main body of the show came from the first three Pretenders albums, 1979-83. Just four years with the spark, 15 more trying to rekindle it. But that’s a typical arc for many an honorable rock career.

The B-52’s’ humorous slices of party life, campily theatrical riffs on flighty nonsensical notions and neo-hippie odes to the worldwide power of love don’t occupy as significant a chapter as the Pretenders. But the band’s enthusiasm and sharpness were impressive, especially during a six-song opening sequence in which it was impossible to sit down or stop smiling.

Even when the action slowed and the set lost some momentum (the rhythm section was too strong ever to bog down completely), one could take in the elaborate “Lost in Space” stage set and often gorgeous lighting effects. The B-52’s played the two new songs included on their recent best-of collection, “Time Capsule,” but there was no indication the band is looking beyond an ethic of “that’s entertainment.” And entertaining is what it was.

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* The B-52’s and the Pretenders, with the Royal Crown Revue, play tonight and Wednesday at the Universal Amphitheatre, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, 7:45 p.m. $28-$58. (818) 622-4440.