BECK TO BASICS QUIRKY ROCKER PEELS BACK ARTIFICE TO SUPPORT HIS MOST INTIMATE ALBUM.

Byline: Heather Wood Staff Writer

Beck Hansen is still healing. The L.A.-bred performer, praised for his inventiveness and worshipped for his quirkiness, wears heartache on his sleeve on his latest album, ``Sea Change,'' one of the prettiest breakup albums (every song focuses on the pain, loss, disappointment and exhaustion a broken heart induces) in recent memory, albeit one heck of a downer. The accompanying concert showcase, which wrapped up Friday at the Terrace Theater in Long Beach, was equally melancholic.

Appearing solo onstage, a worn acoustic guitar strapped over one shoulder, a hazy spotlight shining like a halfhearted beacon from above, Beck wasted no time reminding us of the state he's in, opening with the beautifully haunting, ``Guess I'm Doing Fine.'' With a chorus that unconvincingly nags, ``It's only lies that I'm living/It's only tears that I'm crying/It's only you that I'm losing/I guess I'm doing fine,'' one wonders if he is.

The 90-minute set drew mostly from the new material, breaking briefly to offer the crowd a taste of his country-folk roots (a ``Mutations'' medley), to balk at the decade-old argument that he was merely a one-hit wonder (a still intriguing ``Loser'') and to give the audience, well, something to dance to (``Where It's At'' and ``Get Real Paid'').

Sadly there wasn't enough of the latter. The excited energy of the crowd at the start of the set tapered off into a lazy lull midway through.

This slow pace was particularly jarring, considering the 40-minute rock 'n' roll circus The Flaming Lips hosted in the opening slot (balloons, confetti and humans wearing animal costumes were involved).

Lips frontman Wayne Coyne continued to be the night's source of energy (The Lips also served as Beck's backing band), relentlessly pumping his fists after each Beck song, shining strobe lights into the audience during particularly mellow moments and insisting the crowd stand for each encore (there were two).

But it's not like Beck didn't try to entertain. He danced in his funky white-boy-robot style to ``Where It's At,'' donned a glow-in-the-dark spacesuit for ``Devil's Haircut'' and brought out Zero 7 singer Sia Furler for a bluesy rendition of the ``Grease'' soundtrack's ``You're the One That I Want'' (which he dedicated to alums of L.A.'s Marshall High School, where the movie was filmed). And during long stretches of mono-emotional ``Sea Change'' songs, he lowered a huge projection screen and offered a psychedelic slide show of artist Jeremy Blake's eerie watercolors.

Even at his most mellow, Beck is an artist to be admired. Five major-label albums into his career, he's shed all references to his early influences -- from Bob Dylan to Prince -- and emerged as an individual capable of reinventing himself with every new outing.

Friday's showcase hinted at his many incarnations -- from dirty-jeans folk singer to sideburns-and-shades '70s funkster -- but his current state of misery was omnipresent.

For a final encore, Beck returned to the stage solo (that hazy spotlight again) for a breathtaking rendition of ``Nobody's Fault But My Own'' -- a song written for 1998's ``Mutations'' but stingingly appropriate to his current state of hurt. He sang with his eyes closed, playing only an accordion (a surprisingly beautiful instrument). The theater was still. His passion echoed off the walls. He seemed to return to that place of healing, that place where emotions mutate into music.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2) Heartfelt songs from Beck's ``Sea Change'' album made up the bulk of Friday's show in Long Beach, which was brought down by the emotional weight.

(3) Flaming Lips front man Wayne Coyne sings with a hand puppet before Beck takes the stage. The group's energy and whimsy were difficult to follow.

Diandra Jay/Staff Photographer