Rilo Kiley's indie flavor mixes in sprinkle of soul

The Los Angeles band Rilo Kiley took their indie rock sound to Stubb’s Bar-B-Q in Austin Sunday night.

The quartet has become a noticeable band over the years. But Rilo Kiley has several ties to what the L.A. scene is best known for — Hollywood. It’s fronted by two child actors: Jenny Lewis of Troop Beverly Hills and Wizard is the lead singer and Blake Sennett of Salute Your Shorts and Boy Meets World is the lead guitarist. The hits “I Never” and “Ripchord” have been featured in the feature films Must Love Dogs, Conversations with Other Women and John Tucker Must Die. Rilo Kiley songs even pop up on Fox’s The O.C. and the now-defunct Dawson’s Creek.

But their music is freakishly catchy and their stage presence isn’t stellar, but it isn’t terrible. Make no mistake about it: Sennett has proven to master his guitar better than script lines and TV sets. He also manages to warm many hearts with his ukulele-strumming hit song “Rip Chord.”

“He was very fluid,” said James Rains, 22, of Sennett’s Sunday performance.

And the two female temporary band mates who play a variety of instruments on stage add a touch of character to the live performance. Then there’s Lewis, the show-steeling front woman whose prowess vocals prove to be superior to the rest of the band’s sound.

And as with any live show, fashion is a prevalent theme. At the show, Lewis donned a thigh-length leotard that looked one part ’50s-style black bathing suit other part ’80s fashion item from the Goodwill bin or hipster store. It was accessorized with a thick patent leather candy red belt across the high waist. Lewis may go through more fashion fazes than a teenager, but this look appears to be a mainstay. In a 2004 New York Times article, Lewis told the reporter “I also went through an ‘Eighties-Fifties’ phase — how they’d reference the Fifties in the Eighties.”

The night before the Austin show, the band headlined a show in Dallas, to which Mike Daniel of the Dallas Morning News wrote “If the old Rilo Kiley could be characterized by a generic streetwise character, it would have been some urban cowpoke fond of saying, ‘I’m a little bit country; hear my twang?’ With its new material and through its sexy and confident Saturday gig, it’s now a stately yet imaginative lady of the night that retorts, ‘I am all woman; hear that purr and grooowl?’”

Toward the end of the performance, Rilo Kiley band members told the audience that they approved of the venue and the city because both had the nicest security guards, to which the audience cheered in approval.

The band has produced four albums since their 1998 conception, including the newly released Under the Black Light. Like past Rilo Kiley albums, Black Light revisits the ideas of falling in and outof love as well as the band's hometown, but Rilo Kiley's sound has evolved into a deeper, more mournful one.

Their live shows are generally well-received, too. Some fans say they have seen a drastic improvement in Rilo Kiley’s stage performance over the years.

“[Lewis] was really into the crowd,” said Heather Waller, 23, who has seen the band perform about six times. “Usually, it seems worse.”