Kick Out the Jams: Ben Kweller, Silverstate and Camper Van Beethoven at the House of Blues, Aug. 25

With stoner bangs falling over his forehead and a perfectly matched jeans-buttoned-up-denim-jacket combo, Ben Kweller took the stage at the House of Blues last week looking like a cross between 1974 Peter Frampton and 1984 Bryan Adams. Thankfully, the dreadful musical mélange this might suggest wasn't within earshot as Kweller led his band through an hour of quirky rock from his two albums. Whether on guitar or pounding a keyboard, Kweller turned what can seem like tossed off lyrics into heartfelt odes to girls, confusion and getting by in a strange world. "She is a slut but her ex thinks it's sexy/ Sex reminds her of eating spaghetti," he intoned as guitars crashed behind his voice. When his humor is kept somewhat at bay, Kweller is also capable of producing moments that gleam with the poignancy of juvenilia. Alone onstage for the acoustic "On My Way," he sang, "I want to kill this man but he turned around and ran/ I'll kill him with karate that I learned in Japan/ He wouldn't see my face. I wouldn't leave a trace."

The 25-year-old's goofy charisma infected the audience, easily spreading beyond the adoring teen girls in front of the stage. "Hello, my name is Ben Kweller," he said between songs. "I'm a Gemini. I like long walks on the beach. I'm from New York City." Kweller's confidence as a performer helps him pull off silly stunts with charm, such as his frenetic acoustic cover of "Ice Ice Baby." He turned Vanilla Ice's embarrassingly bad whiteboy anthem into an amusing crowd-pleaser, ending with this nugget of an added lyric: "Dr. Dre ain't got nuthin' on me-ee-ee/Or the Snoop D-O-double-Gee-heeh." It was the hilarious high point of a terrific set.

Openers Silverstate, a local quintet fronted by the lanky and talented songwriter Caleb Lindskoog, played indie rock that was heavy on the mellow and light on the hooks. Lindskoog has apparently lost interest in exploring the sing-along choruses that made his former project, Expert on October, one of the better local bands in recent memory.

A scheduling change led to 1980s alterna-heroes Camper Van Beethoven closing the show rather than opening for Kweller. Their performance was flat and notable mostly for the generally pissed-off attitude David Lowery and company projected. These fortysomethings plodded through a mediocre set of outdated college rock with the intensity of a kitty lounging in a sunbeam. With little spark, the matchstick men seem to have burned out.--Jim Bialek