Kevin Bronson on November 17th, 2008

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Steve Gregoropoulos is a mellow fellow in his role as keyboardist for L.A. indie-pop band Lavender Diamond. What the crowd witnessed at Sunday’s Part Time Punks Festival was the original — Gregoropoulos [above] reconvened with his bandmates in the Wild Stares. “The bands I’m in now are all quiet,” he tells me mildly. “The Wild Stares are a loud band.”

Loud and furious and off-kilter and passionate and, ultimately, a perfect fit for PTP. The quartet’s 35-minute set began erratically, righted itself and ended up dazzling a roomful of newbies (not to mention the players’ families) with the music’s unpredictable rhythms and pin-prick guitar lines. Not bad for a their first show in almost 20 years. They even had cassettes at their merch table.

PTP organizer Michael Stock asked the Wild Stares to reassemble, “and between that and our wives asking us about it a lot over the years, we decided to do it,” Gregoropoulos says.

The Wild Stares, who had a decade-plus run, hailed from Boston. “People disliked us so much we moved away,” Gregoropoulos jokes. And it’s true — the band spent time in Europe, then its members ended up in L.A. Guitarist Justin Burrill and drummer Kyle C. Kyle play with Gregoropoulos in the chamber-pop ensemble W.A.C.O.

Does the Wild Stares music hold a special place in his heart? “I do have an affection for the songs,” Gregoropoulos says. “In the end, I feel like the Wild Stares’ music was pretty prescient.”

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Gregoropoulos says the Grabs — the band he plays in with Eleni Mandell, Elvira Gonzalez and Blondie’s Nigel Harrison — have a second album completed. “We made the first record sound like it was 1977, and now that’s it’s two years later, we made one that sounds like it’s 1979,” he says.

He also says that recording for a new Lavender Diamond album will begin after the first of the year.