Kevin Bronson on March 29th, 2009

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They’re not kids anymore, the Cold War Kids. They are men, capable of articulating a broad range of emotions and sustaining that dialogue for more than a few minutes. And, as they demonstrated at the sold-out Orpheum Theatre in downtown L.A. on Friday night, they know when to turn down the lights.

The Long Beach quartet eased into its 1-hour, 20-minute show as ghostly, side-lit figures, and with a mural from Matt Wignall’s album photograph as a backdrop, it gave the first three or four songs the feel of an art installation. Just as the natives began to get restless, they turned the show on a dime, using the tempo change in “I’ve Seen Enough” (off last year’s “Loyalty to Loyalty”) to get the patrons off their fannies and clapping along. So it was during the course of the evening – you sat for singer Nathan Willett’s sermonizing, you stood and stomped when he, bassist Matt Maust and guitarist Jonnie Russell were bouncing around the stage like pinballs.

The pacing of the set, and the spacing of familiar songs like “Hang me Up to Dry” and Something Is Not Right With Me,” made for very few early departures – most of the seats were still full for the 3-minute ovation that brought the band out for an encore. Some of the foursome’s tunes got new treatments; the Kids also dug into their archives for songs like “Heavy Boots,” off their early “Mulberry Street” EP. An unreleased song, “Audience of One,” an immediately catchy number, was a particular standout.

The sonics of the 83-year-old theater did the Cold War Kids’ clattering arrangements no favors, but the old, echoey room did give Willett’s vocals a slightly otherwordly tenor. Not that he needs it.

Fellow Long Beachers Crystal Antlers came off as rather frivolous in their opening set. Playing to a sit-down crowd in an old theater does not play to their strong suit, to be sure, but despite its frenetic energy, their psychedelic chaos never rose above one-note noise, nor did it threaten to fill the room.