Kevin Bronson on October 18th, 2013

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In case you didn’t know where Haim was from, wisecracking bassist Este Haim told the crowd at the sold-out Fonda Theatre when she gave a shout-out to Valley Village, suggesting Wednesday night’s party could continue there, or at one of her favorite Echo Park haunts, the Taco Zone truck.

In case you didn’t know who Haim were, the quartet’s hour of hair-flying, exuberant home cookin’ made it clear: Sisters Este, Danielle and Alana Haim, and their drumming “mister” Dash Hutton, are rockers. Two weeks after their debut album “Days Are Gone” was released and buoyed by their warm embrace in the U.K., the Haims lived up to their press notices with a celebratory excursion that was too short at 10 songs.

So great has been the media frenzy surrounding Haim that the band has even inspired some considerable backlash – beyond the usual envy-fueled sniping that takes place on the sidelines when a band breaks out. “Haim are a crap band. Don’t believe the hype,” wrote one journalist. “Somebody please explain Haim to me,” pleaded a respected radio personality in an all-caps Facebook post. The quartet was even the centerpiece of this thumbsucker on Grantland, which proclaimed the end of “indie,” which is something Haim never claimed to be in the first place.

Haim are most certainly not crap, and a dissection of their music doesn’t require an advanced degree: It’s two decades of classic rock filtered through modern production techniques and accented by highly percussive vocals. Moreover, “Days Are Gone” is exactly who Haim is – three sisters who grew up in the Valley on a musical diet we imagine included “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Run Through the Jungle” and “Rumours” and “Tusk” on repeat. They are the same people (though far more musically mature) who played a Buzz Bands LA showcased in February 2010 at the Echo with Ma and Pa Haim looking on proudly from the wings.

To take a really cynical view: Haim are not musicians who gave up a modest career in electro-rock to embrace the hippie ’60s; they have not sodomized post-punk to become a safe-for-FM Morrissey clone; they have not tossed away their guitars in favor of computers, synthesizers or Ableton; they have not forsaken rock for Dust Bowl-era wardrobe and a career in theatrical folk; and they have not succumbed to pop-star bimbo antics. They are really lousy at posing, really good at playing, and are just getting started.

It was only 15 months ago that Haim played a noon-hour show downtown at California Plaza, where I watched from a table with a label executive and an A-list producer as they offered modest praise of Haim’s “presence” but lamented the band’s lack of memorable songs. Haim’s collaborations on the album with folks such as James Ford, Ariel Rechtshaid and Jessie Ware helped in the latter department, without gutting the sister dynamic that makes them so charismatic.

So naturally, from the opening beat of “Falling” on Wednesday night, the crowd at the Fonda accepted them for who they are. Alana, Danielle and Este traded off vocal duties all evening as they romped through “The Wire,” “Honey & I,” “Go Slow,” “Send Me Down,” “Don’t Save Me” and, finally, “Forever” to close the main set. They interacted with the crowd in their characteristically goofy way, even turning their backs to the room so they could be photographed with the audience in the background.

The encore was “Better Off” and “Let Me Go,” the latter getting cries of protest from the crowd, who did not want to let go. Maybe Este wanted an asada burrito in the Echo Park, or maybe Haim has some work to do before they can hold court for much longer than an hour.

A starkly different tone was set by the evening’s opener, IO Echo, whose set of gothic shoegaze was performed mostly in the shadows, with singer Ioanna Gika’s garment flowing in backlit hues of blue and magenta. Starting with the title track from their debut “Ministry of Love” and including their intense cover of the Beatles “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” the quartet roared through 35 minutes of moodiness and mystery that was as elusive as the headliners were forthright. Charm, only revealed in a different way.

||| Previously: “The Wire,” “Falling,” at the Troubadour; “Don’t Save Me,” “Forever”

||| Live: Haim performs tonight at the Glass House.

Photos by Bronson