AT LONG BEACH ARENA

J. Geils Quintet Back in Form

The chemistry of the situation involves much that is intangible and unpredictable, but when the J. Geils Band successfully establishes its connection with its audience, there’s not an instant of doubt. The quintet returned to peak form Wednesday at the Long Beach Arena (atoning for a disappointing appearance at the Forum last summer), proving that boogie can be entertaining and that blues-rock doesn’t have to be a mass of leaden cliches.

The group’s music is an insistent, hammering assault, depending largely on the superb precision and strength of the rhythm section. Yet for all its power, it retains a sparkling clarity (much of it due to Seth Justman’s keyboard work) and a remarkable degree of taste and control at every level.

Like Poetry

It’s clean, with a sheen (as singer Peter Wolf, whose rhyming raps sometimes sounded like the street/rock poetry of Patti Smith, might say), but avoids sterility; it’s resolutely funky but with a touch of the flashy and the fashionable.

The band’s athletics are often silly but always energizing and while many of its songs show a good original flair, the link with influences like James Brown and Otis Redding is refreshingly apparent.

Dry and Sober

Preceding the J. Geils Band was John Entwistle’s Ox. The Who’s bassist has carved out a distinctive musical personality, but his short set didn’t really give him a chance to communicate it. The performance was somewhat dry and sober, indicating that Entwistle is likely to remain a special taste for the limited audience that can appreciate his esoteric, morbid (and often quite captivating) excursions.

Joe Vitale’s Madmen opened the show.