POP REVIEW : Zapp Mixes a Funky Collage

The music was derivative and gimmicky. The stage show recapitulated familiar pop antics. But Zapp’s concert Saturday at the Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim was an exhilarating, romping success.

The nuts and bolts of the show mattered far less than the spirit in which the Ohio-based funk group and its leader, Roger Troutman, nailed them together. Along with his seven-man band, Roger, as Troutman likes to be known, charged into the task of entertaining with an infectious joy in performing, a clear camaraderie, and a healthy sense of the outrageous.

What Zapp built was a fun house that rocked. It was built in a jumble, a patchwork of bits and pieces strung together in a collage of almost nonstop funk that made liberal use of Roger’s favorite toy, a voice synthesizer. It wasn’t until the encore, when Roger sang his lilting hit “I Want to Be Your Man,” that Zapp played a straightforward, follow-the-record arrangement. Roger was so justifiably pleased and caught up in the moment that he sang the song twice.

Zapp’s funk, and its aerobic ensemble dance routines, borrowed heavily from Sly Stone and George Clinton. But that didn’t make them any less delicious, nor any less rousing for a crowd that stayed on its feet for all but a few moments of the 65-minute show. In an era when so much R & B sounds manicured and slick, this was the real stuff.