INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Elf Power, Ham 1; Radio Radio, July 17

Ham1 and Elf Power played a power-pop vision quest Wednesday night at Radio Radio, with lyrics crafted in hypnogogic states and an emphasis on ringing psych-folk melodies against four-to-the-floor beats.

Like many Elephant Six folks, Elf Power got a little less precious once they moved into the oughts: a little less studio trickery and harpsichord, a little more in the way of straight-ahead pop tunes. And since you can’t bring the whole kitchen-sink on stage, those elements that might be called characteristic in the Elephant 6 sound — arrangements festooned with exotic, playful instrumentation and percussion — don’t translate to a live setting, leaving a pretty straight-ahead sound.

Looking a bit like an early-period Gerard Depardieu, Elf Power lead singer and guitarist Andrew Reiger has a clear, somewhat high voice that rides atop the band, exploring mystical experiences, symbols, inner journeys in the lyrics and occasionally landing back on earth for a song about a relationship. While power-pop ruled the night, some tunes ventured into more identifiable (and easily parodied) psych-rock territory, with room for a little noodling; one tune even seemed to borrow the chord progression of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid.”

Elf Power’s a tight, talented band — touring as a four piece sans the cello and accordion typically heard on albums — but their set could use a little more variety: every song was up-tempo, most lyrics and melodies sounded fairly similar. If their music can be called somewhat sugar-sweet, then it’s like having too much of something initially delicious, hearing songs founded on the same templates over and over again. When working at that quick tempo throughout, the only place to go is double-time, which kicked up the close of “Everlasting Scream.” I whistled the chorus of “Let the Serpent Sleep,” from 2002’s Creatures, as I left the show; it’s a good example of the kind of simple pop song populated by mythically significant creatures that Elf Power does so well.

Opener Ham1 shares both a drummer (Eric Harris) and a musical approach with Elf Power — on most tunes, they share that psych-pop sound that Elf Power and other put on the map, although their set was a little more varied than the headliner, and boasted some excellent turns on the cello and trombone. The band had a rich and nuanced sound — keyboard chords underpinned most of the songs, and the band wasn’t afraid to venture into dissonance, switch up time signatures, take a solo or two. Vocalist and guitarist Jim Willingham looks tall on stage (mostly good posture) and referred to his bandmates as Coaches — Coach Morris on cello and keys and Coach Sugiuchi to round out the roll call. So that was kind of amusing, although I don’t expect to hear Ham1 on the next, much-anticipated Jock Jam installment. I really enjoyed Morris’s turns on cello and Sigiuchi on trombone — it’s rare that band members can successfully double on non-rock instruments, so I was impressed that they not only knew how to play, but their solos were successfully integrated into fairly complex arrangements.