A wave of silence interrupted the usual ambient discord of Spaceland when the first act Evan Way (of Parson Redheads) took the stage. He brandished only an acoustic guitar and softly strummed chords while singing with particular aplomb. He had a messianic beard and an equally pure look about the rest of him, and he seemed nervous in front of the quiet crowd—though it could have just been the jocky looking man who stared at him the entire set while nursing a lonely beer. The second man on the bill, Daniel Knox, drew a more lively response. He practically shouted in operatic baritone while playing cheery waltzes on a keyboard—or they sounded cheery until I realized the lyrics were about tying up women and killing them with knives. By the end of his set, the witty Knox had won support and a few laughs from the confused crowd, even if some of the women seemed slightly less comfortable with his Jack the Ripper vibe. Finally, the husband-and-wife team of the Handsome Family took to the stage with their band and launched into a rocking country tune, complete with train-track drums and a fiddle. Their lyrics touched on many subjects—love ballads by insects and trees with deep longings. I looked around the room at all the affluent Silver Lake denizens who had descended on the tiny club. They seemed to be enjoying themselves. The grey-hairs rocked along with the beat and mouthed the words silently in a way that clearly showed they’d found something very personal in the lyrics. Harmony filled the air and their down-home music had a calming effect on everyone in attendance. “We can’t hear the fiddle!” yelled a man from the back corner of the venue. “Shut the fuck up!” retorted another voice in the darkness.

—Steven Martinez