The five-band, five-hour SnoCore Rock Tour show at Bogart's Wednesday night served as a representation of the current homogenized product favored by commercial rock radio.

        So it doesn't take much to separate one's band from the rest, and Alien Ant Farm and the Apex Theory did just enough to do so.

        Alien Ant Farm, headliners of the kiddie-metal-minded SnoCore tour, transcended the grind-out musical aesthetic put forth by the rest of the bill with the most well-rounded performance of the night. All that took was busting out a couple acoustic guitars for one number.

        More impressive was their ability to transcend what could have been a no-hope fate: that of the band that rises up the charts with a goofy-cover-turned-novelty-hit.

        The Riverside, Calif., quartet are the gents who've been getting much attention for their revved-up, unremarkable rendition of Michael Jackson's “Smooth Criminal.” The song's effect on our nation's youth was on display at this particular show, when a good chunk of the near-capacity crowd cut out after the band played it.

        Before “Smooth Criminal,” Alien Ant Farm did Sade's “Smooth Operator.” This would have been a memorable move had they pulled the bait-and-switch on the eager crowd and not played their big hit. Instead, the very next song was “Smooth Criminal,” and their little ploy proved to be an anticlimactic maneuver.

        Adema and Glassjaw, the two bands below Alien Ant Farm on the bill, offered no zany covers. Both groups played a one-dimensional brand of poppy thrash-metal that whipped up the crowd. Earshot, the first act, tried to do the same thing but weren't nearly as polished.

        The Apex Theory put on the most irreverent set, and did so without going to the Michael Jackson songbook. Their first few tunes threw together odd time signatures and unexpected time changes, hushed passages and Zappa-style freak-outs. On top of the bizarre and interesting music was Andy Khachaturian's like-minded singing, a mix of nursery-rhyme-style sing-alongs and unintelligible rants. The crowd loved it.

        A Michael Jackson cover was the biggest hit, and the weirdest band was the biggest surprise. Makes you wonder why radio keeps pumping out the blandest new rock it can find.
       

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