The crowd was sparse but occasionally enthusiastic last night at Spaceland. The dimly lit room was adorned with sparkling wall curtains and a nonstop parade of projected laser shapes and flashing lights, but the vibe wasn’t quite enough to get the audience going. Preceded by Portland electronic duo Hosannas and local indie pop band Hands, Los Angeles quartet Gamble House attempted to bring the same energy to the stage as they did when I saw them at the Bootleg (for the full review, click here). I truly admire the way that the group takes orchestral, sweeping songs and boils them down to still gorgeous arrangements for four parts, but I didn’t love last night’s performance like I loved their show at Bootleg. The emotional energy wasn’t as powerful, but that may have been due to the lackluster audience appreciation. It’s difficult to play to an empty dance floor, but the group still did their best to do their beautiful songs justice.

 

Lead singer Ben Becker announced the first song ‘I Came Home’ as a song about coming home to Los Angeles, and the crowd applauded their city. What I love about Gamble House is that they create beautiful, layered soundscapes while still managing to hint at the musical possibilities to come. For instance, ‘I Came Home’ was a sweet ballad with a little extra sonic space that suggested future accompaniment by a lone mariachi trumpet or violin.The second song ‘Rising Tides’ was performed at a considerably faster tempo than both their previous performance of the song and the album version. The dreamy speculation seemed more evocative and expressive as a ballad, the song losing some of its reflective beauty in the seemingly rushed chord changes. During the next song ‘Second to None’ a few couples started dancing, and the band seemed to loosen up with the crowd. They really hit their stride with ‘Rue Dauphine’, a gorgeous and wistful uptempo ballad with staggered vocal harmonies and brilliant nonsense vocalizations (oohs and ahhs) from all three guitar players. They lead guitarist/keyboardist announced ‘Central Park’ as “a song about this park in New York….you may have heard of it” further attempting to engage the small audience with several chuckles.

The last song ‘Bonny Doon’ was a tour de force of what Gamble House does best: abrupt but masterfully executed tempo changes, nostalgic lyrics, and sleek guitar picking.  Every song was well played, and the drummer was superb at keeping time while still making his line creative and interesting to the listener. But the harmonies didn’t blend quite as easily or prettily as when I had seen them at the Bootleg, and I think that the complex arrangements and heavy emotional load of the songs demand a near-perfect execution. Maybe it was the lack of crowd energy, or perhaps the songs were all a bit too epic. It would have been nice to see a bass and guitar solo song, s a drum and guitar solo, or even an acoustic number; they needed something to break up the heavy mix of emotions that the band is so great at evoking. The feelings are there, it’s just difficult for an audience to maintain that level of intense interaction and attention for an entire show, especially with such a small crowd. Their next show is at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) on January 20^th, and I have a feeling that that space and crowd will be more appreciative of the intricate beauty of Gamble House. Recently, they were nominated for several of BestNewBands.com’s ‘Best of 2010′ lists for ‘Best Band’ as well as nominations for ‘Rising Tides’ and ‘Bonny Doon’ for ‘Best Song of 2010′. Voting will remain open until December 15th, and you can vote here. For more information on Gamble House‘s upcoming shows, stay tuned to their Myspace page.