Sparks: Live at UCLA

It was a subversive Valentine's Day love-fest for L.A.'s very own Sparks, playing a rare U.S. concert on Saturday at UCLA's Royce Hall. Why subversive? Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt. Well, along with Morrissey and Stephin Merritt's The Magnetic Fields, Sparks is the band most likely to make you smile with their witty and biting songs about the mysteries of wooing and bedding the opposite sex.

Sparks, the Energizer Bunny of pop acts after 21 albums and 35+ years in the business, consists of brothers Ron and Russell Mael. Ron is the oddball, visionary composer and keyboardist with the John Waters-thin moustache, while Russell is the front man to rival Queen's Freddie Mercury in energy and falsetto power. They are also on a bit of a roll. Last year, the band played all 21 of their albums on 21 consecutive nights in an historic U.K. tour. Sparks devoted the entire first half of the Saturday show to the band's new album, Exotic Creatures of the Deep, which continues the form of Sparks' previous two CDs, Lil' Beethoven and Hello Young Lovers (rock with a very theatrical edge). More Sparks dish (and clips) after the jump...

Sparks has always been as much a conceptual art project as a rock band and the band's new songs translate really well to the concert stage with the inspired and ironic interplay between the Maels and the background video projections. Highlights from the new album, performed as a mini-suite, were "Let the Monkey Drive," an ode to a fellow love-lorn kindred spirit titled "Lighten Up, Morrissey," and the exquisite "Photoshop," with its refrain, "Photoshop me out of your life!"

After the intermission, the band played its landmark 1974 album Kimono My House in its entirety. As much as I loved hearing classics such as "This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us" (see clip below), it was the new songs that ultimately impressed more. How many pop acts are still recording and performing new music that stands comparison with old hits? How many bands that were big in the '70s can still fill a theater with so many young hipster fans who weren't even born when Kimono was released?

Sparks' encore featured some of its best-loved songs -- "When Do I Get to Sing My Way" and the epic disco tune "The No. 1 Song in Heaven" -- and got the audience standing on its feet, giving the stuffy Royce Hall the feel of a giant club. You've gotta love a band that gets  an entire audience to sing along joyfully to the final chorus on the brilliant, satirical "Suburban Homeboy": "Props to my peeps and please keep your receipts!" Hey, Wes Anderson! Please jettison Mark Mothersbaugh and hire the Mael Bros. to score your next movie. PopWatchers, speak up if you're one of the few and the proud that love Sparks!