FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9: Somehow I can’t help thinking a Venn diagram nails this Sparklehorse/Jesse Sykes concert. On one hand, there’s opener Jesse Sykes, whose rootsy Americana made me think she had been cryogenically frozen in some Topanga/Laurel Canyon home after an in-house concert with Emmylou Harris, Joni Mitchell, and Neil Young, and then woken up at the turn of the century. This is both compliment and drawback: compliment for her road weary voice—perhaps the biggest sell—and stare-you-down-with-the-truth lyrics, and drawback in that the music was pretty standard fare. There was nice fiddle accompaniment—is it roots music without a fiddle?—and some entertaining lead guitar parts, but one can only take so many slow-to-mid-tempo songs before general admission standing-up starts wearing one down. Enter Sparklehorse, the other side of the circle. With synthesizers and electric guitars, singer Mark Linkous and company brought a charged joyous dissonance to the stage. Either by murkily singing in his broken falsetto through a processed microphone or just by nailing some pristine guitar squealings, Linkous kept bringing out the musical surprises. It became a game to just try to guess when, say, a Beatles-esque tune like new single “Don’t Take My Sunshine Away” would begin to break apart into extended noise chaos, only to be brought back harmoniously from the edge before ending. The set list was solid, too, and although brief at about seventy minutes, the songs drew from an increased musical palette and felt more expansive. I suppose I gotta finish this extended analogy I’ve committed to by describing that middle area where both circles come together. Umm… they’re both musicians? (GG)