Kevin Bronson on July 13th, 2013

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There were “Secrets and Truth” and a whole lot more on Friday night at the Skirball Cultural Center in one of the most ambitious intersections of music, art and performance art we have witnessed at a museum.

Two rising bands on the L.A. indie-rock scene, Hunter Hunted and Harriet, provided the tunes, exhilarating at times, as both acts have full-length albums in the works. But it was what happened around the bands’ sets that made the evening distinctive, and that owed to featured artist Gary Baseman and his collaborators.

As it was when Nightmare & the Cat played its big opening, Baseman’s “The Door Is Always Open” exhibition was well-trafficked Friday, and even more than at it debut – when greeters dressed as Baseman characters and in costumes inspired by his work roamed its campus – the themes behind his work came to life.

As an artist and illustrator, Baseman has always been a wolf in sheep’s clothing; the childlike qualities of his creations belie their often subversive messages. Friday’s performance, he explained, was very much about the process of youthful dreams evaporating into adult realities, and that concept was realized during a meandering performance choreographed by Sarah Elgart and serenaded by a live band and choir. Swinda Reichart’s costumes embodied Baseman’s whimsy as its most outrageous, and the crowd in the Skirball’s courtyard, many wearing masks bearing the visage of the artist’s ubiquitous “Toby” character, got in the spirit, following a procession of performers to the courtyard’s pool, watching their interpretive moves and then dancing with them afterward.

||| Live: Skirball’s free Summer Concert Series starts July 25 with the Belle Brigade. The next ticketed event is Friday, Aug. 30, when Jenny O., In the Valley Below and Body Parts perform at “Into the Night: The Wild Side.”