Kevin Bronson on January 12th, 2014

0

Youngblood Hawke proved the perfect party mammals to kick off 2014’s First Fridays series at the Natural History Museum, but the band’s feel-good dance-rock was upstaged by an explosive, theatrical outing from L.A. newbie Conway.

Fronting a four-piece, singer Kassia Conway took the stage wearing a mask and a leopard body suit, with her band dressed in wildlife ranger outfits. Kicking, dancing, strutting and vamping, Conway prowled the stage in the museum’s North American Hall of Mammals like a big cat, not a diminutive songstress with only one EP to her credit.

• ||| Photos by Kelsey Heng

It made for an audacious opening to First Fridays, which continues Feb. 7 in a more experimental vein, with music from Baths and Peaking Lights.

The headliners, playing in support of their debut album “Wake Up” (which came out in April), brought enough electricity to the show to bring all those stuffed animals in the museum’s dioramas to life. Youngblood Hawke employs a formula common to many indie-pop troupes today – gang vocals, monster choruses and enough floor toms to rattle even thousands-of-years-old bones. All the way to their finale – “We Come Running,” which saw the crowd playing the role of the children’s chorale on the recording – Youngblood Hawke was as invigorating as the museum’s occasionally balky sound system let them be.

Conway’s performance was another in a series of recent support outings that have made her an increasingly hot item. On her “Big Talk” EP, she straddles the line between belter and shout-singer – it’s a sonic hybrid of pop-rock and rap that wouldn’t be nearly as likable if she weren’t so lyrically crafty. The non-EP songs that she performed Friday augur some interesting things ahead.

The theme for this year’s First Fridays series, which runs monthly through June, is “L.A. Stories … Walk on the Wild Side,” tied to the museum’s new permanent exhibition “Becoming Los Angeles,” which is worth exploring should you arrive early for one of the musical events.