Mating Ritual strengthen the bonds at homecoming show at the Teragram

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Mating Ritual at the Teragram Ballroom (Photo by Zane Roessell)

Maybe Matt Blitzer, the dashing frontman of Superet, said it best on Saturday night at the Teragram Ballroom. “I feel like there’s a mating ritual going on tonight,” he told the crowd as he led his band through an electric support set. “Am I right?”

He nailed it.

While the crowd populated largely by couples were doing their Saturday night thing, cowboy-hatted siblings Ryan and Taylor Lawhon and their Mating Ritual bandmates did theirs, engaging the audience with relentlessly catchy songs, an air of romanticism and no small amount of good humor.

The prolific brothers have released three albums in the past three years, and Saturday’s show at the Teragram was a homecoming affair, ending their tour behind 2019’s “Hot Content.” But it also offered a bit of a history lesson for the many who might have only recently discovered Mating Ritual because of their single “U.N.I.,” which has gained some prominence on FM giant KROQ.

Ryan Lawhon mentioned that some longtime followers had been asking for the duo’s earliest hit, which they previously resisted revisiting. On this night, though, they played it: “Float,” originally released in 2012 as the Lawhons were segueing from their original name, KO KO, to their second name, Pacific Air.

It received generous applause, though maybe not as much as when Ryan Lawhon took the stage comically waving an illuminated sign that said “APPLAUSE.”

Other highlights included “I Wear Glasses,” the lead track on Mating Ritual’s 2017 full-length “How You Gonna Stop It?;” the duet with Lizzy Land, “Cold,” from that same album; the title track from 2018’s “Light Myself on Fire;” and a spirited cover of British band James’ 1993 hit “Laid,” which Ryan Lawhon confessed he discovered through the “American Pie” movies.

As for Superet, they preceded headliners with a physical set of dance-rock from their album “How to Work a Room.” Blitzer has the titular exercise down; for one thing, he engaged the crowd in a call-and-response of “Superet / Don’t Forget.”

Indie-rockers Low Hum kicked off the night with the delicious grooves of songs from their debut album “Room to Breathe.”

Mating Ritual setlist: Boys Don’t Have To Be Boys, Light Myself On Fire, U.N.I., Falling Back, Future Now, Laid (James cover), Drunk, Cold, October Lover, Monster, Name of Love, Float, I Wear Glasses, I Know So Much Less Than I Thought I Did, Game

Photos by Zane Roessell