BIG STAR/YO LA TENGO/SUPERDRAG/PERFECT

It took three acts and nearly four hours to get to Big Star, not long when you consider that no one heard a peep from the defunct band for twenty years, until an impromptu one-shot reunion gig in '93 with Posies members Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow.

Children may not come by the millions when Alex Chilton comes around, but Friday night's stuffed house certainly gave credence to the now legendary status of Big Star's early '70s pop gems. Along with Auer (guitar) and Stringfellow (bass), original members Chilton and drummer Jody Stephens took the stage with wry smiles and tore through spirited (and heavier) versions of the sadness-tinged jewels that made "#1 Record" and "Radio City" the landmark albums they're now regarded as.

Twenty years can lend an ode of lost innocence an added emotional perspective, as Chilton's dead-on reading of the majestic "Ballad of El Goodo" indicated. As the now middle-aged Chilton utters "Years ago my heart was set to live" and then counters with the chorus of "Ain't no one going to turn me around," the years of commercial indifference and Chilton's own subsequent career path of willful self- destruction give the song an oddly prophetic aura.

For the most part, however, prophecy took a backseat to ringing hollow-body guitars, as the notoriously unpredictable Chilton was downright cheery, tossing off light-hearted covers of Eddie Floyd's "I Never Found a Girl" and The Kinks' "Till the End of the Day," not to mention delivering the lilting chorus of his own "Thank You Friends" without a trace of irony or bitterness.

And unabashed "Big Star disciples Auer and Stringfellow further balanced Chilton's voice of experience with sheer youthful abandon. The able-piped duo picked up vocal duties frequently throughout the evening to make for some unexpected highlights, notably Stringfellow's charging turn on "Daisy Glaze" (assisted by Stephen's snare shots slamming like fatal shots in the song's break) and Auer's amped version of deceased founding member Chris Bell's "I am the Cosmos." Just when everyone thought it was over, the band returned for an encore of, what else, "The Girl From Ipanema."

Prior to Big Star, Yo La Tengo spiraled out a patchwork of tape machines, farfisa organ plinkings and whammy-bar feedback. Anchored by the simple yet effective rhythmic kick of drummer Georgia Hubley and percussionist/bassist James McNew, the non-singin' charm that is Ira Kaplan let loose with sprawling tunes fresh from the studio (a new album is tentatively set for an early '97 release). A sharp focus and percussive backbone kept the drawn out distortion of Kaplan's rudimentary yet arresting guitar work from drifting off into the indulgent noodling that fells many an "art" band.

The chunky pop of Knoxville, Tenn., upstarts Superdrag suffered with an earthy melodic grounding marred by Tom Pappas wholly un-subtle bass riffs and singer John Davis' jaded referrals to songs from its recent debut "Regretfully Yours" as "buzzbins." Similarly, the lines of its radio ready single "Sucked Out" -- "This was my dream/ Played out rocking routine/Who sucked out the feeling?" -- seem disconcertingly weary for a group in its infancy.

Perfect, featuring former Replacement Tommy Stinson, opened with a crackling set, drawing mainly from his new band's recent EP "When Squirrels Play Chicken" (Medium Cool). Stinson's nitrous oxide vocals fueled the driving "Makes Me Happy," "Sometimes" and "Miss Self Esteem" with vein-bulging exuberance. And while it may not possess fellow 'Mats Paul Westerberg's beer-stained eloquence, Perfect certainly packs the punchy energy that the former now lacks.