Los Angeles – Wild Child has a ton of L.A. groupies. It’s surprising—a gypsy band from Texas, whose main components are a goofy guy with a thick mustache and a ukulele, and a barefoot, bed-head blonde playing a violin. They’re not exactly Justin Bieber swoon-worthy.

But their performance felt less like a stop on their tour and more like a private show for a huge extended family. Maybe it’s the songwriting—honest, bittersweet, humor-filled love stories—or the green face paint, or the joy that emanates from Wild Child, but at one point it seemed like a folk mosh pit might ensue.

“I can’t believe how many people are here on a Sunday,” Kelsey Wilson (violin/vocals) said at the start of their hour-long set.  The barefoot blonde looks straight out of a field. She wore a floor-length black sundress, and her hair is long—a mixed bag of waves and tangles, with tighter, more pronounced curls around her temples.  She sings and plays violin with her eyes closed mostly, and smiling, big, with abandon.

Alexander Beggins (ukulele/vocals) is taller, with longish, coarse brown hair making curtains down the side of his face, his head topped with a newsie cap. He has big, imploring brown eyes and a jaunty sort of up-down way of dancing with his tiny instrument.  Wilson and Beggins make up the heart of this folk-pop group. The band also includes Sadie Wolfe (cellist), Carey McGraw (drums), Chris D’Annunzio (bass) and Evan Magers (keyboard.)

The show had a sort of bursting-with-life quality. The dialogue—musical and otherwise—between band and audience was ongoing.  It felt like Wild Child knew every one of the approximately 100 bodies, and maybe they did. For their song “Crazy Bird” Wilson invited a very young fan, Oceana, no more than 8 or 10 years old, up on stage to sing along (she knew every word.)  It was like they were all in on the same joke.

The show finished with Wilson and Beggins on the floor of The Echo singing “Pillow Talk” with only the uke—an encore performance.  Audience stood in a circle around them, joining in, in hushed tones, forgetting the words occasionally and swearing and laughing.  The remaining members of the band stood on stage by the edge, in a sort of faux chorus girls lineup, mimicking the sounds of their respective instruments and making impromptu choreography, while members of the audience jumped on stage to film from above.

Wilson and Beggins began writing songs together while chilling on the bus—part of the touring band for Danish psych-folk act The Migrant. The two first-time songwriters and collaborators found themselves settling easily into a rhythm with each other (and with the uke, brought for its convenient size) and with zero expectations for where it would go.  From their no expectations came 2011’s “Pillow Talk,” an album recorded in a makeshift studio in East Austin where they used, among other things, pillows and Ambien bottles to make the sounds they needed.

This year Wild Child won Best Indie Act and Best Folk Act at the Austin Music Awards (at SXSW.)

They now continue with their tour in support of their second album “The Runaround,” released Oct. 8.  It’s unclear if this was an isolated incident, or if all their shows are this familial.  But only one way to find out.