Slightly Stoopid [ tickets ] often comes across like a mediocre version of G. Love and Special Sauce. The fact that they can also come across like a so-so version of UB40 or a watered-down version of Bad Religion is what makes the group more than just slightly interesting.

On Saturday (1/21) at the SF Weekly Warfield in San Francisco, the SoCal quartet--which is led by vocalists/guitarists/bassists Miles Doughty and Kyle McDonald--did a fine job displaying its versatility. The group hit the crowd with frat-house-party reggae, mellow Jack Johnson-like surf tunes, SoCal punk rock and a few touches of metal here and there.

Very little from the musical mix was exceptionally good and very little was exceptionally bad, which is one of the reasons why the band is able to appeal to so many different audiences. Slightly Stoopid won't embarrass itself on a reggae bill or in the middle of a punk-rock lineup. They can also handle a mainstream crowd, as proven last summer when they opened a handful of mammoth dates for the Dave Matthews Band.

In all, the group seems on the verge of breaking through to the mainstream. It's certainly proving itself at the gate. The band sold out a two-night stand at the Fillmore in San Francisco back in April and drew a near-capacity crowd to the Warfield (which is roughly twice the size of the Fillmore). Furthermore, its latest self-released CD, 2005's "Closer to the Sun," debuted at No. 1 on both Billboard's Heatseekers chart and independent albums chart last spring.

Wisely, Slightly Stoopid isn't changing its game plan as the promise of widespread success and bigger paydays looms on the horizon. The group is sticking with what works for it, which, to oversimplify, is to create a diversely appealing soundtrack that pleases frat boys with Bob Marley posters on their walls and Red Stripe beers in their dorm-room refrigerators. On second thought, I guess that really isn't oversimplifying too much.

Slightly Stoopid is famous for drawing one of the rowdiest crowds in the business. These young fans--who embrace the nickname "Stoopidheads" and "Ese Locos"--come to these shows to party hard.

Not to be hardhearted and callous, but part of the fun of a Slightly Stoopid show comes from watching the interaction between some of the more obnoxious fans and the overworked security force. The band is busy bouncing away on the stage, which is cool, but the real action is seeing the security team toss some of the fans out the door.

Slightly Stoopid, of course, cannot be held fully accountable for the actions of some of the rowdier members of its crowd. But the band is guilty of setting the mood. The tone for this evening was set by the introduction.

"Slightly Stoopid will be on the stage in three or four minutes," an unseen announcer proclaimed. "They are smoking their last bong-load and drinking their last beer and getting ready."

It wasn't hard to take the announcer at his word as the band opened the show with a mellow buzz through the slow reggae number "Bandelero" (from "Closer to the Sun"). Next, as if some other drug kicked in, Slightly Stoopid went careening in the other direction as it displayed its ability to deliver adrenaline-rich SoCal-style punk rock. From that point, the group flipped through its musical catalog--going from reggae to punk to reggae to rock to reggae--and usually coming up with something tolerable.

The exception to that rule was the new album's true low-point, "Till It Gets Wet," which is nothing more than an explicit novelty number and nothing less than juvenile and offensive. Think of it as the college reggae-rock equivalent to the Ying Yang Twins' "Wait (The Whisper Song)," only without any of the sexual energy, undeniable talent or, really, reason for existence.

The band redeemed itself with such winning numbers as "Runnin' With the Gun," "Officer," "Mellow Mood" and, especially, the new album's "Somebody."

"Somebody" is a great song, perhaps the best that Slightly Stoopid has come up with on its 10-year-plus odyssey. Still, it's hard to get over the fact that it just sounds like watered-down G. Love and Special Sauce.