Live Review: The Ocean Blue in West Hollywood, CA

http://www.livedaily.com/news/7223.html

The Ocean Blue has gone through lineup and label changes over its 15-year existence, but the band's formula of sophisticated, Smiths-like pop melodies combined with swirling guitars has remained the same.

Rounding out a short U.S. tour in support of their upcoming "Waterworks" EP, the quartet played several old favorites amid some new material to a near-sold-out crowd at The Troubadour on Tuesday (10/19). Singer/Guitarist David Schelzel hasn't aged at all, and neither has the band's music. Songs like "Sublime," "Mercury" and "Ballerina Out of Control" sound just as clean and bright as when the band first came onto the scene in the early '90s.

Other songs performed during the 90-minute set included several fan favorites from their extensive catalogue, among them "Drifting Falling," "Marigold," "Ways and Means" and "Whenever You're Around." The band also dusted off its rarely performed songs "Breezing Up" and "Slide."

A noticeable improvement to The Ocean Blue of today is the addition of singer/guitarist Oed Ronne. A member since the band's 1996 release, "See," Ronne's carefree contributions with Schelzel and the rest of the band (drummer Peter Anderson and longtime bassist Bobby Mittan) were best displayed by his back-up vocals on new songs like "Golden Gate," and when he took the lead on the fun pop musings of "Sunshower" and "Ticket to Wyoming."

As the set came to a close with the band's signature song, "Between Something and Nothing," Schelzel concluded with the tongue-in-cheek "I've Sung One Too Many Songs For A Crowd That Didn't Want To Hear." However, the audience wanted more, and Schelzel obliged by delivering a fine, solo-acoustic encore performance of Billy Idol's "Eyes Without a Face." The rest of the band joined him for a fun audience sing-along to "Love Song."