Art Brut gamely tries to make best of L.A. weekend

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Ready, Art Brut?

Because Los Angeles wasn’t, of course.

The U.K. quintet brought its winking, self-referential (and self-pillorying) garage rock to town over the weekend, and judging from their hastily arranged show early Saturday evening at the Satellite, they were all pent up with no place to go. It was no fault of their own – ironic sermonizer Eddie Argos and pals were geared up to play Sunset Junction, and after the festival met its untimely demise, Art Brut settled for a Satellite makeup date that turned out spirited but rough.

With the guitars of Ian Catskilkin (dogged by technical woes) and Jasper Future dialed up to festival levels, the modest crowd at the Satellite had trouble hanging onto Argos’ every word – and you want to catch every Cockney-accented wisecrack, even when the Art Brut frontman is smirking and wishing (all in good fun, naturally) that your city gets destroyed by an earthquake.

Still, the author of songs like “Good Weekend,” “Lost Weekend” “Bad Weekend” and “Really Bad Weekend” seemed determined to make the best of this weekend, sharing moments humorous, embarrassing and both, and, as he is wont to do, updating lyrics from old songs to keep the protagonists fresh (“My Little Brother” is 29 years old now, not 22, but still “out of control”).

The songs from Art Brut’s fourth album, the Black Francis-produced “Brilliant! Tragic!” carry a bit less of the juvenilia in which Argos previously reveled, but no less of the rock ’n’ roll wallop. You could bury Argos’ vocals entirely and still have a good time, but when you can laugh out loud and still get rocked out of your shoes, it’s a shame not to get his lyrical sagacity along with his band’s audacity.

Next time, Art Brut, on a better weekend.

Australian dance-punks Art vs. Science fared better, their ridiculously catchy beats inspiring a bit of pogoing, and some laughter too, especially on 2009’s hit “Parlez-Vous Français?”