Hollywood, California – There are three necessary components that must come together in order for a great concert: a musically tight band, excellent sound engineering, and a fun audience. Fanfarlo’s gig at The Echo November 23^rd hit two of these notes perfectly. Despite some stated jet lag, the band itself is as sharp a live band as one could hope for, and the sound-techs at The Echo are perfect for a small venue. The audience, on the other hand…

Let’s talk about the band first, though. Imagine the year is 1938 and you’ve stopped by a Big Top in the middle of the Dust Bowl, where Houdini and Man Ray are hanging out. A stripped-down set that still manages to evoke the feeling of a traveling gypsy band establishes the mood for Fanfarlo’s particular brand of vintage vaudeville sound. The band, carefully dressed in matching buttoned-up shirts and slacks, look like the stagehands who managed to scramble around and assemble a spontaneous collection of musical celebration following the last night on a midway. The lights of a Ferris wheel go dark as a series of dangling light bulbs on a makeshift stage flicker on and a trumpet lets out a triumphant wail.

Fanfarlo are no mere Indie band riding the coattails of Klezmer-influenced pseudo-gypsy bands like Beirut. They are a collection of extremely talented musicians who trade off on a variety of instruments to create a tight set of catchy, dance-worthy tunes. Thanks in part to the success of Arcade Fire and the aforementioned Beirut, the jagged DIY crash-and-bang musical ethic of the earlier part of the decade has slowly given way to a love for melodic harmony. Much like the democracy needed to assemble a proper touring sideshow, everyone in Fanfarlo shares the spotlight. Lead singer/guitarist/mandolin strummer/clarinet player Simon Balthazar takes center stage and bounces vocals off violin/mandolin player Cathy Lucas, while Leon Beckenham bounces between trumpet and keyboards, frequently alternating between the two during one song. It’s impressive musicianship improved by the general morale of the band, who are engaging and obviously as delighted with their music as the audience should be.

But if Fanfarlo gets an A, then the audience at The Echo gets a D. The only thing preventing them from failing completely were the three or four women around me desperately trying to dance in spite of being on the receiving end of several contemptuous stares. It’s a frequent complaint that Los Angeles audiences tend to be less enthusiastic about live bands than other cities, and on this night, that was totally fair. Despite an impressive turnout, most people stood around with fixed glares on their faces like they were trying to figure out abstract art instead of watching a live band. If that wasn’t the worst, there were the loud-talkers. Now the show may be electric, but Fanfarlo are a largely acoustic band, which means that during a lovely encore duet between Lucas and Balthazar, the loud-talking by the bar (particularly one group standing about a foot from the stage who incurred this audience member’s hateful wrath) drowned out the sound. Meanwhile, the two guys standing behind me spent a majority of the set talking about chicks they wanted to bang at the top of their lungs, or trying to figure out who the band sounded the most like. I heard EVERY SINGLE WORD. Trust me, it was hard not to hook them up with the obnoxious pair of girls next to us doing the same thing, except about the many, many boys who want to bang them.

It’s L.A’s loss, because this band is too good to be doing the small stage circuit for long, despite being so ideal for an intimate stage. The next time you see them, they’ll doubtlessly have moved on to larger venues like the El Rey or the Music Box, and audience members will be moaning about not having the opportunity to catch them when they were less successful. So boo L.A. and yay Fanfarlo.