Kevin Bronson on July 25th, 2017

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First in line at the Echo on Monday night was a woman not of the headliner’s generation, who had flown to Los Angeles from the Midwest, wearing a T-shirt dotted with Beatles pins that read “Here Comes the Son.” Like the guys with the last name Lennon know, this is what Dhani Harrison faces as he tries to make his own musical way in the world.

If there were elevated expectations based on his lineage, they were not met, as Harrison, fronting a five-piece, soldiered through an hour-plus of music that included four songs from his solo debut “IN///PARALLEL,” the first album he will release under his own name and arriving Oct. 6.

While not without its highlights, it was an uneven performance, owing to the fact that 1) it was his band’s first live show, 2) persistent problems sent a tech scurrying across stage several times in the middle of songs, and 3)  the setlist itself culled from four different projects in which Harrison has been involved. If you came in search of a chewy nugget that would shed light on the question “Who exactly is Dhani Harrison?,” you walked home wishing you’d heard more of the new album.

Nor did the typically genial 38-year-old look entirely comfortable, although he had a bit of fun on the new song “Poseidon (Keep Me Safe).” That song featured a call-and-response between Harrison, his voice vocoded, and Mereki, the L.A.-based Australian who has previously sung with Goldroom, among others.

Harrison was backed by guitarist Noah Harmon (The Airborne Toxic Event), keyboardist Josh Giroux (Big Black Delta, Gary Numan), drummer Chris Hornbrook (Poison the Well, Big Black Delta) and bassist Blas Perez (Big Black Delta, among others). Perez got a shout-out from a fan after the electro-rock banger “So Vain,” one of two songs played from 2008’s “You Are Here” by the Harrison-led group Thenewno2. “Gotta love that f*cking bass, man,” the fan shouted, underlining its weight.

The band began with the new album’s “Summertime Police,” a burner of a rocker with an outsized beat. Later, “#WaronFalse” revealed an almost-’90s industrial snarl as it built to bombastic crescendo. And to close out the main set, Harrison played the catchiest of the new material, the first single “All About Waiting.”

The three-song encore consisted of “Things Go Round,” a song from the 2010 album by Fistful of Mercy, the trio of Harrison, Ben Harper and Joseph Arthur; “Make It Home” from Thenewno2’s 2012 album “Thefearofmissingout;” and “Yomp” from Thenewno2’s 2008 debut.

Harrison dipped into his movie work for two songs — “My Eye” and “Sharp Knife” from 2016’s “Seattle Road” soundtrack.

The band’s next gig is Sunday at the Panorama Festival in New York City.

Setlist: Summertime Police, My Eye, Timezone, Sharp Knife, Poseidon, #WarOnFalse, So Vain, All About Waiting. Encore: Things Go Round, Make It Home, Yomp.

Photos by Michelle Shiers