Weekend wrap: The National, in a theater; DeVotchka, on a hilltop

There were so many choices for music this weekend my head hurt -- old-school raves, new-school raves, vendor-clogged neighborhood shindigs and even boy geniuses grown up and backed by orchestras.

My highlights:

The National makes music not for sold-out concert halls but for long walks back to your car down deserted streets, if you can remember where you parked. Somehow, the Brooklyn-via-Cincinnati quintet made it work Friday night at the Wiltern, punctuating its bookish musings with epic freakouts and exhilarating excursions by violin player Padma Newsome. Matt Berninger's soul-jarring baritone turned the Wiltern into a crowded confessional from the very start. "I had a secret meeting / in the basement of my brain," he sang, and despite the setting you felt like you were in on it.

That the music of the last two National albums -- 2005's stellar "Alligator" and this year's equally good "Boxer" -- has found an audience this big is nothing short of amazing. Was it poignant or laughable that the chorus to "Baby, We'll Be Fine," turned into a sing-along Friday night? I'm still trying to figure it out, but that's the one image I took home from the Wiltern: a theater full of people joining Berninger as he repeated "I'm so sorry for everything."

The modestly attended (at best) Swerve Festival on Saturday and Sunday afternoon provided the perfect counterpoint to the National's shadowy stylings. The inaugural event, held mostly at the hilltop Barnsdall Art Park in Los Feliz, offered film, music and art in ways that those keyed into what the festival described as "West Coast creative culture" could appreciate. Like listening stations hanging from pine trees. Or mobile skateboard-making stations.

Musically, it was sublime. A stage erected on the grassy knoll next to Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House hosted sets from the likes of Foreign Born (pictured above), the Black Angels, St. Vincent and DeVotchka. Foreign Born's exhilarating indie rock and DeVotchka's genre-mashing orchestrations were the highlights for me. This event must have cost a fortune for its sponsors, including Fuel TV, but we can we do this once a month or so?

Photos: Top, Matt Popieluch and Lewis Pesacov of Foreign Born; middle, pinwheel art at the Swerve Festival; above, Nick Urata of DeVotchka (by Kevin Bronson / LAT).

Comments

[TitoP]

Even though the festival turnout was low, it didn't seem to affect the bands' performances. Devotchka were wonderful!