ROMANTICS’ ANTICS

The Romantics popped into the Palace Friday night revealing the same flaws (virtually zero originality, sincerity and substance) that the group showed when it surfaced in 1979 with the enormously catchy “What I Like About You.” But those faults seem even worse now.

The only discernible differences in this year’s show are that the foursome has become more smarmy on stage and has accumulated even more inferior, interchangeable retro-pop tunes--plus another huge hit (“Talking in Your Sleep”). Although the Detroit popsters have the kind of appeal to pack the Palace with yupscale nuevo wavo types, the Romantics continue to stand out only as a nostalgia act that plays dated originals.

Budding arena-rock temptress E.G. Daily, an actress-singer who looks like Pia Zadora and sounds like a low-rent Pat Benatar, opened with such a hilariously overwrought, awful set that it was almost good camp.