Tuesday night at Boston's Bill's Bar, it seemed more than a little ironic that the San Jose ska-pop quartet Smash Mouth took their name from a comment football coach Mike Ditka once made describing two teams he said were playing "smashmouth football." After all, it was in Boston that three New England Patriots jumped from the edge of the stage last month at an Everclear concert, injuring a young woman in the process.

\\Although police opted not to pursue the matter, city officials were nevertheless spooked enough to post a sign outside Smash Mouth's sold-out show that ominously read "The Floor Is Harder Than Your Skull." It further warned that moshing, crowd-surfing or slam-dancing would result in an ejection from the club. Guess what happened? Several large young men, forcibly escorted from the premises by several even larger young men, did not get the opportunity to hear Smash Mouth's grand finale, a rave-up cover of the War classic "Why Can't We Be Friends?"

\\Ironic enough? But wait, there's more: namely, the sudden roar from the crowd when the Doors' "Break On Through" was piped through the speakers before the show. The audience's reaction made perfect sense, of course, because Smash Mouth's ultra-catchy hit single "Walkin' On The Sun" borrows its opening guitar-and-keyboard figure from the Doors' intro to "Soul Kitchen." Is it any wonder, then, that a cover song ("Why Can't We Be Friends?") is slated to be the band's next single?

\\That said, Smash Mouth proved to be as effective as they are unoriginal. During a 60-minute set that included everything from their debut album, "Fush Yu Mang," tattooed frontman Steve Harwell chugged a steady stream of beers, cheerfully threatened to launch into the Boston FM artifact "More Than A Feeling" and summoned the band's road manager on stage to do a not-bad impersonation of Patti LaBelle. The group also mixed its record collection cocktail well, incorporating elements of ska, funk, classic rock and stoner groove into its songs about getting laid ("Beer Goggles"); rocking out ("Let's Rock") and being cool ("The Fonz"). Guitarist Gregory Camp made buoyant ska-punk ditties like "Beer Goggles," and "Flo" crunch and swing, while bassist Paul DeLisle and drummer Kevin Coleman rendered the tunes as propulsive as they were catchy.

\\But let's face it: Everyone was there to hear the hit, and though Harwell said "the only way we're going to play this song is if everybody starts dancing "before playing "Walkin' On The Sun," the comment proved superfluous. The crowd surged gleefully to action -- even