Kevin Bronson on September 25th, 2008

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After seeing the Cold War Kids last spring at Coachella, where some thought their sound was a protein shake or two short of filling the main stage’s vast expanse, I wondered whether the Long Beach quartet might have trouble commanding the increasingly large venues they were destined to play. Their minimalist blues, absent the reverb that would register on the Richter scale, moves the mind more than mountains.

But they made big, glorious noise last night at the Music Box @ Fonda. Performing in front of a theater-sized enlargement of Matt Wignall’s striking photograph, the Cold War Kids drove home their stories of woe and hope (for some reason, they remind me of short-form Jim Harrison) with a startlingly robust sound. Bassist Matt Maust and guitarist Jonnie Russell were at their convulsive best, selling every note, and Nathan Willett’s voice was up to the task of cutting through it all. The carefully paced setlist, alternating material from the deubt “Robbers & Cowards” and the just-released “Loyalty to Loyalty,” kept hands clapping and bodies moving, and judging from the number of folks singing along to the lament, “Every Man I Fall For,” plenty of fans have already spent time with the sophomore album.

Equally transcendent was opener Richard Swift, the singer-songwriter whose star has risen since he moved away from L.A. and signed with Secretly Canadian. The Fonda was more than two-thirds full when his five-piece took the stage, and his Victrola-tinged material never sounded better. Recommended listening for your next decompression session: his April release, “Richard Swift as Onasis.” (Swift plays tonight at OCPAC’s Samueli Theatre, opening for Jose Gonzalez.)

No photos from last night, sorry; that’s my snapshot of Cold War Kids at Coachella.