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Rooney looks back with charm

Special to The Times

PARENTS know to lock up the liquor, medicine and cleaning products cabinets. But a case could be made for protecting kids from their guardians’ record collections. You just never can tell what impact the contents will have. Case in point: the band Rooney’s new songs performed at the Roxy on Monday.

Midway through a weekly April residency that concludes April 23, the Los Angeles quintet previewed material from its upcoming “Calling the World” album, heavily drawing on sounds from 25 or 30 years ago -- shards of Billy Joel, the Cars, ELO, Todd Rundgren, Foreigner and even the Bay City Rollers, among others, all Frankensteined into a patchwork and filtered into the band’s lo-cal SoCal pop-rock.

The odd thing is that where influences usually are most identifiable in a bands’ earliest work, Rooney seems to be having a delayed response, with these elements emerging more clearly on its second major-label album than on its 2003 debut.

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The new “Are You Afraid?” sported a keyboard intro evoking Foreigner’s “Cold as Ice,” ELO-like harmonies, a linearly minimal bass line a la the Cars and had a bridge recalling Billy Joel’s “Pressure.” Like Dr. Frankie’s creation, this is music that just wants to be loved. Unlike the creature, the music Monday presented no danger.

What it did present was a wholesome, fun time. Frontman Robert Schwartzman has established himself as a winning attraction with the young women (the bulk of the guests).

Regardless of its pastiche method, Rooney has certainly developed a sturdy, full sound, not as orchestral as ELO, but accomplished in its sheen. That said, the most charming moments of the night were the most tentative, as Rooney played two vintage numbers: First the band was joined by the young trio the Chapin Sisters on the Mamas and the Papas’ “Monday Monday,” nicely casual and showing a dark side lacking from Rooney’s fairly tame boy-girl material. Then Bangles singer Susanna Hoffs came on to lead Rooney in her group’s frisky 1986 hit “Walk Like an Egyptian.”

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More innocent times? Maybe. And maybe the real “danger” of Rooney’s recycling is that the result is overly safe. But it’s a dangerous world. Maybe we need a Bay City Rollers right now.

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