POP MUSIC REVIEWS : A Temper Tantrum Scars the Wonder Stuff’s Stuff

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO —  Miles Hunt of the Wonder Stuff was hardly the first young rocker to come to the Coach House expecting a standing tribute in a sit-down club where audiences tend to be loudly appreciative, but are usually content to kick back and avail themselves of a particularly good listening room.

But Hunt threw one of the bigger snits over it Sunday night. When the Wonder Stuff’s stormy opening number, “Change Every Light Bulb,” failed to lift the capacity crowd to its feet, he added multiple cusswords to the lyrics, then announced that he was bored and threatened to remain so unless this assembly got up on the double.

Instant compliance didn’t stop his sulking. Hunt basically ditched it during “On the Ropes,” a rousing anthem from the English band’s current album, “Construction for the Modern Idiot.”

The mood lingered, robbing the concert of the spunk and humor that are the Wonder Stuff’s most endearing qualities. Still, most of the show went forward on solid and varied musical footing: no problem with the singing and playing, just the attitude.

Hunt was at his vivid best on a couple of nasty, biting songs that seemed to fit his mood (one of them was called “I Wish Them All Dead”). Two sprightly encore tunes promised a happy ending, but the Wonder Stuff called it quits after a stingy hour.