Kevin Bronson on September 1st, 2009

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You name your band Fun, and you better be able to hold up your end of the deal. Which is exactly what the New York-based six-piece did Monday night at Spaceland. Playing the opening slot on a night that featured three of Los Angeles’ most passionate young bands, Fun fairly stole the show with its complex hybrid of jaunty pop, glam and white soul.

Fun has a following equal to its name, too. Spaceland was packed by the time the band’s set started at 9:15 – not the usual Silver Lake crowd, either – and it seemed as if everybody in the main room knew the words to the songs from Fun’s debut album, “Aim and Ignite,” which came out only last week. Credit Fun’s lineage – the principals are Nate Ruess of the Format, Jack Antonoff of Steel Train and Andrew Dost of Anathallo. I wouldn’t be surprised if everybody in the room knew the words to those bands’ songs too.

If its members were born in the 1980s, Fun makes music with DNA from the ’70s. “Aim and Ignite” bears the fingerprints of some L.A. pop royalty, with Steven McDonald (Redd Kross) producing and engineering and Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (Jellyfish) handling some of the arrangements. The music is earnest, and it has the good sense not to dumb anything down; if you hear echoes of the past, they are fleeting: ELO on a bullet train, Queen on Ritalin.

Frontman Ruess reminds me of a young Jason Falkner (who, come to think of it, doesn’t seem to have aged in 20 years), and on Monday he was full of vigor and humor. Keenly aware that his music has often fared best among teenage audiences, Ruess marveled at the reception he was getting from a 21-and-older crowd – and in this neighborhood, the unofficial capital of detached cool. “I’m in Silver Lake, so I’ve gotta play it calm, cool and collected,” he joked during one break. “So I just want to say that I don’t give a f*** that you’re here.”

He proved quite the captain of the party squad during giddy anthems like “All the Pretty Girls,” but he showed formidable range on the tender ballad “The Gambler,” which he dedicated to his parents, and the alternately rollicking and slow “Take Your Time (Coming Home).”

It was only 35 minutes on a Monday night. But what Fun.

Photo by Laurie Scavo