When Blur's U.K. mega-anthem "Country House" hit No. 1 on the British charts in 1995 (it went all-but-unheard in the U.S.), the band suddenly saw the median age of its audience drop to about 14. Thrust into the British media-fueled Blur vs. Oasis battle, the members of Blur found themselves becoming modern day pin-up boys for a generation of pre-pubescent alterna-teens. Time for a change.

Hence "Blur," the band's self-proclaimed reinvention. The bubblegum synth-pop heard on Blur's biggest American hit, "Girl & Boys," has been replaced with screeching, Sub Pop-style indie-guitar-rock. The pretentious, working-class subject matter of many of the band's songs are a thing of the past as well, pushed aside to make room for such conventional topics as life in America. And the Britpop sound Blur nearly single-handedly spawned with 1994's "Parklife" has taken a backseat to the more grunge-influenced sound of American alterna-rock. On album, this rebirth is shady at best. Live, however, Blur is trying -- sometimes a little too hard -- to become a true rock & roll band.

The new and improved Blur made this clear before a packed house -- made-up mostly of Brits disguised as Americans -- at New York's Supper Club on the night of "Blur"'s release. Kicking off the show with "Beetlebum" -- surely to get the one and only Beatlesque song on the new album out of the way -- frontman Damon Albarn made it clear that Blur's trademark sound was not on the menu tonight. Throughout the evening, Albarn was uncharacteristically over-animated and melodramatic -- climbing speakers and jumping around stage like a chimpanzee on speed -- seemingly in order to establish his band as leaders of the new, post-Britpop school of American-style rock.

Albarn's "been there, done that" attitude suited the band's music well, especially on "Movin' On," a fuzzy, distortion-heavy new track, and "Girls & Boys," which even boasted a much rougher edge. On "M.O.R.," perhaps the most tell-tale sign of Blur's stylistic shift, guitarist Graham Coxen's trash metal interlude brought the song to a grinding halt in true cock-rock style.

Blur's having fun as well. After a crowd-pleasing rendition of "End of the Century," as Albarn mumbled on about water in his hotel room, bassist Alex James doused him in the substance from behind. Albarn stopped mid-sentence, smiled, and doused him back. It was as beautiful as that post-football championship game tradition we've all come to know and expect.

But at times Albarn's theatrics seemed slightly contrived. During various points in the show, he lunged at Dave Rowntree's drum kit Cobain-style (Albarn obviously saw the trick performed by Cobain himself at the Reading Festival in '89) but couldn't follow through by crashing into them completely. Albarn's organ also took a beating. As the show went on, it became obvious that the members of Blur have set out to change Americans' perception of them from snooty English bastards to American-style rock icons.

After what seemed more of an intermission than the preface to an encore, Blur returned for a short instrumental before launching into "On Your Own," one of the standout tracks on "Blur." But the song's machine-gun clatter lacked the intensity found on the record and Albarn's lyrics were somehow lost in the shuffle. From there, the surprisingly mellow six-song encore touched on various stages of the band's career.

"Parklife," Blur's ode to English slackerism, charged up the heavily-British crowd while "The Great Escape"'s "The Universal" settled them back down again. Next came "Sing," a song written before the release of 1991's "Leisure" but didn't surface until last year's "Trainspotting" soundtrack. Blur's capitalization on the soundtrack's American success, along with its decision to release the Nirvana-esque "Song 2" instead of "Beetlebum" as the U.S. single, only added to the obviousness of the band's attempt to come off as more American.

But Blur's newfound penchant for catering to the States was most evident with "Look Inside America" -- a somewhat cynical look inside the one country where Blur have yet to become superstars. Albarn's frustration towards the band's Stateside struggles have been well-documented -- he's introduced songs in the past with a sarcastic "This is our next not gonna be a hit in America ..." -- despite the song's lyrics to the contrary. And image makeover or not, "Blur" still sounds like Blur, and Blur still sounds like the Beatles. And when