Kevin Bronson on December 7th, 2014

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One thousand five hundred ninety-six days passed between the release of the first Avi Buffalo album and the second, and a lot happened to Avi Zahner-Isenberg in the interim: a dalliance with college, a relationship, studies in music production, other explorations and experimentation on his own and with friends’ bands. Etcetera. You now, life.

• ||| Photos by Carl Pocket, courtesy of the Echo

Some of it you can divine from the subtext of “At Best Cuckold,” which came out in September via Sup Pop. It’s an album with a cherubic face, a friendly smile and questioning glances, its overall warmth recalling early Neil Young as filtered through the wondering skepticism of 2014, and maybe a California breeze. Hailed as a prodigy at 19 when his debut landed, Zahner-Isenberg proved as unready as frontman as he was ready as a creative. So, four years between albums.

As he sang in that squeaky voice of his to kick off Friday night’s show at the Echo, “So What.”

The Long Beach-bred quartet’s hour onstage proceeded similarly, on the frontman’s own terms. It was a workmanlike affair, interrupted only by a couple bouts of
endearing awkwardness (“Everybody call out their signs of the zodiac all at once,” Zahner-Isenberg asked in his off-kilter humor, also thanking “the friends and family who came out, including some we haven’t seen since middle school.” )

Joined by one original member from his Pehrspace days, drummer Sheridan Riley, along with keyboardist Anthony Vezerian and bassist Doug Brown, Zahner-Isenberg alternated new material with old and full-band numbers with solo excursions. It was light on pyrotechnics but heavy on tenderness, as well as craft. Once upon a time, the frontman writhed spasmodically on the stage while playing the delicious solo in the first-album epic “Remember Last Time.” On this night, he merely showed the front row his fretwork.

Then he excused his bandmates for two songs, including 2009’s “Summer Cum,” before they they returned for new songs “Overwhelmed With Pride” and “Memories of You.” “What’s In It For” helped close out the main set, and the frontman returned solo for an encore, taking to the keyboard for the paean to long-ago “Jessica.” Satisfying though far from overwhelming, the show begged the question of where Zahner-Isenberg’s next growth spurt will take him: Back into the inherent charade of write-record-release-pimp-tour, with only an indie-rocker’s meager rewards to show for it? Or somewhere else?

For now, there is “At Best Cuckold” and its inscrutable title. And a few years to figure it out.

Leading in to Avi Buffalo was Los Angeles Police Department, the indie quartet fronted by Ryan Pollie, and who, bassist Justin Lerman points, “are not actually police officers.” If only cops were this much fun. Smiling and singing to the ceiling, Pollie led the four-piece through the catchy stuff on LAPD’s debut album (11 songs, 25 minutes) – which, he announced, has sold out of its cassette run but would be available on “CDs once they become dated enough to be cool.” The set was good for plenty of laughs as well as the music; Brendan Lynch-Salamon took the lead for the encore, when the quartet bar-banded it by mashing up “Louie Louie” and “Wild Thing.”

Hin Du (fka Hindu Pirates) opened the night with a solid set of ’90s-tinted indie-rock.