SAN FRANCISCO -- Call it "goof-core." Call it immature. Call it

rock for the socially challenged.

No matter what you call their sound, their style of sophistication or

lack of it, Chixdiggit, the reigning kings of "goof-core," returned to

their favorite musical town this weekend, and their loyal fans were

there to roll out the red carpet.

"I think they rock the hardest!" yelled Terrence Arjo, 32, of San

Francisco. "I've seen these guys every chance I get. Talk about having

a sense of humor about the whole thing! And just look how hard they

rock!"

Playing the Paradise Lounge on Friday, the wholesome foursome from

Calgary, Alberta, continued spreading love, pop music and drunken

silliness on this side of the U.S.-Canadian border. It's been a

mandate for the band's six-plus years of existence.

The quartet jumped right into it, kicking off the set with

href="http://www.addict.com/music/Chixdiggit/323.ram">"323" (RealAudio

excerpt), one man's anthem to his beat-up Datsun

("You've been good to me/ Good to me/ Oh my little 323"), as the crowd

roared out approval and immediately began leaping in wild devotion.

Chixdiggit are San Francisco favorites, always winning a coveted spot

in the town's annual NoisePop Festival -- one of only a handful of non-

local bands to do so. They seem to play San Francisco as often as they

can. Their shows are always packed. And once you've been to one, it's

hard not to feel like you've taken part in some kind of lovely,

beer-soaked prom, with four geeky Canadian dream-dates of your own.

And like the perfect date, or dates, the perpetually cheerful and

charismatic singer/guitarist K.J. Jansen and his mates made it seem as

if there were no other place they'd rather be.

Jansen exhorted the crowd into a frenzy even before Chixdiggit's

second song of the set, reaching out his arms in true rock-star form

and suckering the audience in with rapid-fire declarations of love.

"I am telling you people that this is the best crowd in the best club

in the best city anywhere and I just want you to give it up right now

for yourselves. ... Give it up for yourselves, San Francisco!"

A cheer rang out. You knew he'd said the same thing the night before

in Portland, Ore., and that he was going to say it the next night in

Sacramento, Calif., but it didn't matter.

Chixdiggit play fast, catchy little tunes (preferably clocking in at

less than two-and-a-half minutes) smarting with poppy power-chords and

hard, uptempo drumming. The themes mostly concern cars, girls, drinking

or some combination thereof. None of punk's requisite anger is here;

these are sincere and nice young Canadians: jeans-and-sneakers types

who just want to get drunk, make some noise and maybe impress a few girls along the way.

To accomplish their goal, Chixdiggit tour incessantly. In fact, they

are still touring in support of their second album, Born On the

First of July, which was released in April on the Honest Don's label.

Rocking hard and fast into some of its older material, the band made

up the set -- which was dictated largely by requests shouted from the

crowd -- as it went along.

Songs such as

href="http://www.addict.com/music/Chixdiggit/Where_Is_Your_Mom.ram">

"Where Is Your Mom?" (RealAudio excerpt) -- a twisted little

number about secretly loving another guy's mother ("I had a dream that

she took me to Vegas/ Tied me to the bed/ And played bridge with her

friends/ And they were naked!") -- and "Stacked Like That" had everyone

shouting the words and hopping in place like hyperactive children.

Guitarist Mark O'Flaherty and bassist Mike Eggermont played it to the

hilt, striking the hilariously requisite poses: the synchronized,

now-to-the-left, now-to-the-right guitar moves ritualized in heavy-

metal videos, along with the classic, back-to-back, rocking-out-while-

screwing-up-their-faces pose. Drummer Dave Alcock pounded the drums with tireless abandon.

Jansen played a mean rhythm guitar slung low to his knees, feet planted

a wide distance apart. He was practically in a full split as he bent

his knees and leaned even lower, his microphone also positioned at a ridiculously low level.

But Jansen was showing no pain.

Taking a good long pull off his beer, he contemplated the bottle label

before turning to the crowd and raising his arms again. "San Francisco!

Anchor Steam! Give it up! Is anybody here drinking ... Anchor Steam?"

Naturally, more cheering ensued.

The band ripped through more old favorites, including "Hemp Hemp Hooray,"

a self-explanatory, stomping little anthem, and

addict.com/music/Chixdiggit/Henry_Rollins_Is_No_Fun.ram">"Henry Rollins

Is No Fun" (RealAudio excerpt), a song supposedly inspired by

a comment from Jansen's mom. Both songs come off Chixdiggit's self-

titled 1996 debut album on Sub Pop.

At the request of a pretty girl in the front row, Jansen coaxed the

rest of the guys into a truly awful attempt at reggae-master Bob

Marley's romantic ballad "No Woman, No Cry" before giving up and

tearing with inspired madness into Cheap Trick's glorious, late-'70s

power-rock anthem "Surrender."

The crowd was a sea of bouncing, chanting people, who looked as if

they were taken right out of a scene from a junior high-school concert.

Talk about a love-fest. Jansen gathered the crowd in and cozied right up.

He winked, he pointed slyly, he nodded with a smile of recognition.

Somehow, he managed to give practically everyone in the crowd a "Who

loves ya, babe?" of some kind or another.

And the crowd?

They dug it.