POP MUSIC REVIEW : Supercharged, Sexist Kix at X Poseur 54

Complaining about sexism at a Kix show is like griping about four-letter words at an Andrew Dice Clay concert.

At the band’s Sunday show at Hollywood’s X Poseur 54, several women had to keep an infuriated friend from charging the stage--in anger, not lust. You couldn’t blame her and the other obviously angry women in the audience, considering the way shrill, pencil-thin singer Steve Whiteman was spewing the sexist verbiage.

What really set them off was a foul-mouthed monologue during a song late in the show, in which he lashed out at a woman after a one-night stand in terms that were shockingly abusive.

Before that over-the-top diatribe, Kix--though distastefully sexist--was musically compelling. Highlighted by the two-guitar attack of Ronnie Younkins and Brian Forsythe, the four-piece band played tight, rip-roaring hard rock. They created a supercharged musical base for the maniacal antics of Whiteman, a snarling wild man who’s somewhere between a young Rod Stewart and Skid Row’s Sebastian Bach.

Fans packed X Poseur 54, reveling in the rare chance to catch Kix, which usually plays theaters and arenas (including Anaheim’s Celebrity Theatre on Wednesday) in a club.

First-rate but perennially underrated, this 12-year-old outfit finally moved into the upper echelons of pop-metal with its last album, 1988’s million-selling “Blow My Fuse,” featuring the hit single “Don’t Close Your Eyes.” With its new album “Hot Wire” boasting the band’s best material ever, Kix may even move up a notch.