Oingo Boingo, Salt Lake owes you an apology.

An hour-and-a-half into the wildly energetic show last night, Danny Elfman and Company abruptly ended the concert, finishing the hyper-speed "Only a Lad," with a terse "See you all next time," and walked off the stage. The nearly 10,000 screaming fans were still reeling from all the head-flinging and slam dancing and figured the group would come right back for an encore if they kept up enough noise. After five minutes of continuous ear-piercing screaming and foot stomping - which hit about a 6.5 on the Richter scale in my book - Oingo Boingo finally came back, but Danny Elfman, the group's lead singer, was not smiling.

"What the ---- is your problem?!!" he screamed at the suddenly quiet crowd. "We wanna play, but not if you're going to keep throwing that stuff on our stage!" Except he didn't say stuff.

It seems that a few fans got a bit rambunctious (it was hardly their fault, though . . . Oingo's frenetically paced music tends to drive even the mildest mannered to sheer reckless frenzy) and started throwing their sweaty clothes, and then sweaty bodies, on stage. On top of the band's equipment. Elfman was a good, if slightly disgusted, sport for a while and then got really annoyed.

After the band's return, the audience mellowed somewhat, a bit chagrined for having upset one of their favorite artists. But not too mellow. After coming back with their electrifying "Weird Science," Elfman couldn't help but break into a wide grin at the sight of such obviously devoted and enthusiastic Boingomaniacs. "Sorry I yelled at you guys," he said. "I've just got SUCH A TEMPER!!"

The crowd screamed some more, and Elfman ripped off his tank top and threw it to them. Talk about a great relationship.

"You always did want to party," he yelled with a chuckle. Salt Lake is the first stop on the eight-man band's current tour and, according to Elfman, ranks No. 2 (at least, we did before last night's show) in their Top-10 list of favorite audiences (hometown L.A. being the first). Earlier in the evening, the group had introduced one of its new songs by saying, "We need someone really insane to test this stuff, so we thought of Salt Lake." Of course, that provoked a wildly approving reaction from the crowd.

Despite a few technical snafus with the mike, and the fact that Elfman frequently got drowned out by the blaring, but excellent, three-man horn section, the group's sound had all the lyrical quality to mesmerize, and all the power to rock, the huge arena. Oingo kicked off the night with the popular, danceable "Dead Man's Party," giving the folks a chance to show they were anything but dead. Psychedelic videos lit up the giant screen behind the band, featuring skeletons with dilated pupils, among other charming images.

Many of the band's pulsating songs sound as though they were composed in the heart of the Congo, and Elfman belted out his throaty bass with all the energy of a tribal chief leading a sacrificial ritual. The crowd twisted in a sweaty frenzy, moving like grasshoppers in heat, and security guards had to keep hosing them off with water bottles.

Elfman, with his red hair and wild-eyed mischievous grin, looked like a demented Little Rascal under the fluorescent lights and exuded charisma as he playfully grabbed the eager hands that groped toward the stage.

The group played many of its biggest hits, including "Wild Sex," "I'm on the Outside," "Little Girls," "Fear," "Sweat" and "Grey Matter," among others. They came back for a second encore and finished with "Goodbye, Goodbye," blowing kisses to the audience and yelling "You're the ----- greatest, Salt Lake!"

I guess that means they're not too upset with us.