PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Copyright Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. 1993 DATE: MONDAY October 11, 1993 PAGE: E08 EDITION: FINAL SECTION: FEATURES ENTERTAINMENT LENGTH: MEDIUM SOURCE: By Sam Wood, FOR THE INQUIRER MEMO: REVIEW: MUSIC TEARS FOR FEARS, AND JELLYFISH Opening acts on a rock-and-roll bill work under hellish conditions. Often the headliner, worried about being upstaged by the opening band, denies requests for a sound check, insists on brief sets with no encores, and permits only minimal lighting and ha lf the volume needed to create a full body-shaking concert effect. Jellyfish, which opened for Tears for Fears on Friday at the Tower Theater, suffered through all those indignities. Despite a turbulent sound mix during the first three songs (Why? Jellyfish hasn't been allowed a sound check for its last four shows) and despite having to play in murky shadows, the band triumphed with a 45-minute set that beat the odds. Both Jellyfish and Tears for Fears traffic in pop styles first defined by the Beatles and the Beach Boys. Complex vocal harmonies and memorable song hooks are the cornerstones of each band's song craft. Jellyfish, though, had Tears outclassed on both fronts. Where Tears for Fears' Roland Orzabal slavishly mimicked John Lennon's ''I Am the Walrus'' during ''Sowing the Seeds of Love,'' Jellyfish's Andy Sturmer and Roger Manning just hinted at Lennon and McCartney's ''Ticket to Ride'' before ''The King Is Half Undressed'' erupted as a tribute to the golden age of California pop. Tears' ''Brian Wilson Said'' attempted to capture the magic of Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys. But the song collapsed when Orzabal led his five-piece backing band through vocal arrangements that had all the subtlety of a stomping troupe of pachyderms on para de. Jellyfish, on the other hand, won a round of applause for its effortlessly breezy harmonies that recalled not only Brian Wilson but the Mamas and the Papas and the Zombies, to boot. Perhaps the most important difference between the two bands boiled down to attitude. Tears' Orzabal - with spotlights seeming to emanate from his head - was all unrelenting solemnity with the grandiose bluster of a self-appointed rock-and-roll saint. J ellyfish's Sturmer and Manning - performing in near- darkness - appeared as playful pranksters, happy just to be playing their lighthearted, exceptionally well-crafted pop songs in front of a live audience.