In concert: Best Coast at Rock & Roll Hotel

Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast stayed on the same note at Rock & Roll Hotel Wednesday. (All photos by Josh Sisk/FTWP)

By Mark Jenkins

In contemporary terms, Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino can be seen as Katy Perry's less attention-greedy cousin, singing California-gurlish ditties about romance, summer and wishes (mostly for romance). But there's nothing especially contemporary about Cosentino's band, which played to a full house Wednesday at the Rock and Roll Hotel. The L.A. trio's girlie-punk style recalled such late-'80s British outfits as Tallulah Gosh and the Shop Assistants, while the boy-crazy lyrics evoked Lesley Gore's tear-stained early-'60s hits.

Amiable to a fault, Best Coast played its raucous pop at a ladylike volume, and paused now and then for offhand chatter. Cosentino wished the crowd a happy Rosh Hashanah, and talked a bit about her boyfriend. (That would be Wavves' frontman Nathan Williams, Sonny to Cosentino's Cher in today's Cali slacker-pop universe.) As for the songs, they involved a lot of "oohs,'' "las,'' and "whoas,'' and proceeded at one of two tempos: medium or fast. Faster was better, since the velocity somewhat compensated for the thin, sound-alike melodies.

Such tunes as "Boyfriend'' and "Summer Mood'' might have seemed more distinctive if they hadn't been part of a 55-minute set that included almost twice as many numbers as the band's 13-song debut album. The occasional guitar solo wasn't enough to inject variety into a set whose musical style (and psychological profile) never shifted. Rather than leave the crowd wanting more, Best Coast left the lingering sense that it had shown everything it might do in its entire career.