Bootleg Theater is a plywood box of a venue. If there’s a theme in the deserted bra factory turned concert hall, it’s “under construction.” Fittingly, this is the kind of place DIY music calls home. From the outside, the seemingly lifeless locale wouldn’t be the first place you’d look to find inspiration. But at Sunday’s Lymbyc Systym show, ‘inspiring’ was the only word that came to mind.

Walking in, you find the exact MMA—mixed musical arts—type crowd you’d expect at a Sunday night instrumental show. Drinks are cheap and people are friendly. So the crowd is content kicking it, waiting for the acoustic-electro-rock duo to hit the makeshift stage.

Lymbyc System is made up of Tempe-born brothers Jared and Michael Bell. Although three years apart, the two wander the venue looking like twins. Unassuming as all’s hell, they hang out with the crowd during Helios one-man-band opening set, and sell their own merch after the gig is up. Never one bit of attitude or cocky glare to remind you that, “Hey, bro’, we toured Japan.”

But, mind you, these guys did tour Japan.

As much as the night’s ambiance screams amateur, the Bell brothers have a musical prowess and history that proves they’re anything but proletarian. The performance presents an impressively textured sound. Accompanied by a masterful fiddler and some laptop programming, their electronic tinge distinguishes their sound from Explosions in the Sky and their other musical neighbors.

Still, their genre often falls victim to the same shallow accolade: “It sounds like a soundtrack.”

As good as Lymbyc would sound on Dolby Surround, they make more than songs for scores; the band makes songs for performance. Lymbyc absolutely rocks their live two-man orchestra. Sure, most the songs on their new album, Shutter Release, throw you into a narrative storm of introspective nostalgia, but find one person in that show that isn’t bobbing their head to Mike Bell’s restless hi-hat.

Speaking with Jared Bell after the show, he describes Lymbyc’s goal “to just keep making music as best we can and hopefully craft something that adds to the vocabulary of music and is meaningful to the listener.”

So as the hipster crowd sways and air-drums along, the Bell brothers vibe with eyes closed. They showcase a musical connection that leaves no doubt that they share the same genes. And as long as they continue to share the same stage as well, you’ll find crowds in plywood boxes looking for inspiration.

—M.M. Zonoozy