The late evening hours are beckoning hours in Austin. They call for the strange, the enthusiastic, the music-lovin’ Texans and company to come out of hiding from the heat to enjoy the bountiful tunes in the city that is the live music capital of the world.

Last Tuesday night was no exception – Austin’s Mohawk on Red River, known for its killer line-ups and ridiculously inexpensive beer, hosted the great Ty Segall for an hour and a half set.

Opening acts Hidden Ritual and Holy Wave are both local Austin bands with keen agendas to take their indie-psych tunes throughout North America and beyond. Together they were the textbook precursor to Segall’s acoustic performance of his just-released album, Sleeper, which we reviewed last week.

Many have said that Sleeper is a bit unexpected for the once “screaming, sedated and angry” front man behind Slaughterhouse and Twins but it is an unexpected turn that is necessary for the young singer who recently lost his father to cancer and dealt with other familial affairs. In fact, as art most often always imitates life, Sleeper has become an intense and reflective body of work full of inspiration and relatable circumstances.

Segall took to Mohawk’s outdoor stage with his bassist, drummer and rhythm guitarist. As one, they made their way to the front of the stage and sat down in plastic chairs right at the edge bringing forth the drum kit to create an intimate (and fantastic) energy between performers and audience.

Segall became a man of little words and focused inward on the much-weighted symbolic connotations of dreaming and sleeping in Sleeper.  The title track opened with a whistle – if you close your eyes while you listen you can picture a man walking in the desert looking for solace while visions and mirages emerge and disappear in and out of vision. Segall delivered the track with striking precision. As the track developed so, too, did the live performance. With dabbling vocals over soft guitars of well-timed melodies, the deep twang of rock and roll rang through the night air.

With an adopted British accent for “Crazy” and “The Keepers,” these two tracks were easily Segall’s most potent tracks both lyrically and sonically. The surprising falsettos and melodic trappings of these songs ambled along and affirmed just how talented and charming Segall is.

Segall closed the evening with “The West,” a drifter’s ballad that became the perfect cherry-on-top to the evening of a young man of many songs, playing one album full and honest.