Recap Abe Vigoda at Project Lodge

Los Angeles’ Abe Vigoda seemed to have fully emerged from the jagged noise-rock dwellings of its earlier work and into far sunnier pop territory Wednesday night at the Project Lodge. In fact, the band barely performed any recorded material during its short set. Fans of 2008’s Skeleton should still be pleased: The fractured guitar work of Juan Velazquez and Michael Vidal is still smothered in chattering reverb, and the bouncing rhythm section of bassist Dave Reichardt and drummer Dane Chadwick is still hammering out its off-kilter grooves as tightly as ever.

Set-opener “Sequins” exemplified the way Abe Vigoda has fleshed out its sound with swooping guitar sonics, crooked disco-punk rhythms, and synth sequencing. Unfortunately, Vidal's raw vocals were often lost in the massive tunnels of reverb-soaked riffing. Other new highlights included “To Tears,” a punchy new tune that’s glued together by a sugary, chorus-soaked bassline from Reichardt, and an as-of-yet untitled song that pins robotically timed rhythm guitar from Vidal underneath an infectious synth melody from Velazquez.

Between songs, Vidal and Velazquez poked some friendly fun at the reserved audience for not showing many physical signs of enjoyment. “What’s up rockers?" Vidal teased. "Party with me, punks! Cut loose!” Velazquez added: “You guys could come up closer, or you could just clap at the idea of coming up closer." Vidal also took an opportunity to discuss how Madison seems a lot like Europe “because it’s so clean,” a trip to Avol’s Bookstore, and how he sampled some cheese curds at a truck-stop.

While Abe Vigoda cranked out a mass of new material, it did manage to squeeze in a howling rendition of “Don’t Lie” from 2009’s Reviver EP and closed its set with the shuffling title-track from Skeleton.

The show began with an impressive showing of meandering post-punk from Madison’s Control, a newer band that features Luke Bassuener (of local band This Bright Apocalypse) on drums. After Control came a surprisingly good set from Atlanta garage-rockers Gringo Star, who far exceeded the low expectations set forth by, well, the fact that it’s named Gringo Star. Instead of delivering the buffet of salsa-infused Beatles covers we feared, the band collided garage-rock and old school Brit-pop. As the four members ripped through their set (which was somehow longer than Abe Vigoda’s), they seemed to be engaged in a never-ending round of musical chairs: Guitarist-pianist Peter Furgiuele, guitarist-bassist Nick Furgiuele, and guitarist-drummer Pete DeLorenzo all switched off on lead vocals. While the Kinks-tinged revivalism of songs like “All Y’all” and “Make You Mine” were ultimately less artsy and self-realized than the worldly hooks of Abe Vigoda, Gringo Starr’s referential barnburners helped make for a delightfully varied show.