Kevin Bronson on March 1st, 2010

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Any guy with an outsized personality, a radio hit and the good sense to emphasize his British accent when he says “Los-AN-gel-eeez” can carry a small club in L.A., and Dan Black did last Wednesday at Spaceland. The Paris-via-London electro-pop artist, whose single “Symphonies” might be the unlikeliest add to KROQ-FM’s rotation in recent memory, got into Spacelanders’ hearts (and feet) during an hourlong Club NME set that featured almost all the songs on his debut album “UN.”

If he’s to take up a notch, though, Black had best use his radio royalties to hire himself more band members.

Performing in between a bassist and a guitarist, Black was all high-spirited and dandy and dead-on vocally as he coaxed all manner of backing tracks from his machines, but I couldn’t help but think how explosive he could have been with a live drummer (at least) and a keyboardist. As it was, songs such as “U + Me =” and “Pump My Pumps” were pretty irresistible; a little more protein and they’d sprout new muscle.

Even if it got a bit karaoke at times, Black and his songs made for a giddy mix in the sold-out room. He bantered with audience, allowing as how they were much more forthcoming with their affections than those he’d faced at Cinespace the night before (imagine that, a Spaceland crowd out-partying a Dim Mak crowd). And although there was no appearance by Kid Cudi (who appears on the “Symphonies” remix) as there was on Tuesday night, Black sparked a pretty good after-set dance party.