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Review: Moses Sumney, Lucinda Williams hit the pier at Way Over Yonder fest

Lucinda Williams performs during Way Over Yonder on Santa Monica Pier.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Standing onstage before a trio of microphones, the young singer Moses Sumney faced the Pacific Ocean from the Santa Monica Pier on Friday and looped his sampled voice until the layers sounded like ten thousand Beach Boys. Rich waves of harmonically deep layers washed over the crowd, a one-man chorus unanchored by a beat or bass-line during an early evening set as part of the Way Over Yonder festival on Friday.

As seagulls patrolled overhead and the sunset cast a glow, Sumney, a buzzing young Los Angeles singer, set an early, Chet Baker-cool tone for the two-day event, one that increased in energy as the night progressed.

Produced by the East Coast-based Newport Folk Festival, Way Over Yonder offered a first-night roster with touches of folk, soul and rock, highlighted by sturdy guitar-based sounds from Sumney, singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams and twang purveyor Joe Fletcher. That the early part of the evening was thematically grim and subdued only made the luminous set by headliners Local Natives shine brighter. (Saturday’s lineup will feature Jackson Browne, Heartless Bastards, Chris Robinson Brotherhood and others.)

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Sumney’s an Angeleno with a strong, if unseasoned, voice that’s eager to express its full capacity but also tended to overdo it. Backing himself on guitar and loops with another guitarist offering delicate melodic runs, Sumney performed surprisingly somber and untethered songs, something he noted after a performance of his “Insular Peninsula.” “Is everyone still awake? I’m barely hanging in there,” he told the crowd.

Not the best banter to open a festival set. Fortunately, he helped deliver a memorable moment a couple hours later -- and proved why his name is on many tastemakers’ lips right now -- when he joined former tour-mates Local Natives for a magnetic version of Little Dragon’s “After the Rain.”

The Los Angeles band’s steady rise over the past few years has been impressive. A five-piece group whose vocal harmonies and hooks are as striking as they are memorable, Natives performed with compact and confident strokes songs from across its two albums, and many sang along. “Breakers,” an exuberant rock song that swirls with rhythm and a tight internal logic, sounded pretty awesome spinning across the pier. “Wide Eyes” prompted the kids to pull out their phones and record the moment.

Williams, one of the great American songwriters of the past few decades, was backed by a tight three-piece band and performed some of her most devastating songs early, adding a level of grimness to Sumney’s lethargy.

On “Pineola,” she recalled the suicide of a loved one and the moments after. As afternoon turned to evening and the Ferris wheel spun, Williams also recalled a friend’s demise in “Drunken Angel”: “The sun came up it was another day / The sun went down and you were blown away.” The sound of the ocean was small comfort.

In fact, those who romanticize the West Coast breeze-and-sunshine life suggested by the Santa Monica Pier should know that the beauty’s less breathtaking in that general vicinity. The beach is great, but in truth Way Over Yonder is set amid a very touristy set of attractions: Bubba Gump’s Shrimp Co., a carousel (where a second stage showcased lesser known acts) and various souvenir shops.

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Still, when Lucinda Williams commented on the beautiful setting, she wasn’t lying; the performers could see both the sunset and the moonrise. Their view was amazing -- ours, less so.

Or maybe that’s the music talking; after all, hard truths can drag a person down. Williams tackled them, none more grim than one from her solid new double-album “Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone.” Called “Burning Bridges,” it captured in one line an ominous vibe currently drifting across the city: “The loveliest flowers will die in the drought,” she sang.

Somebody get me a beer -- and a shot of Local Natives.

Follow Randall Roberts on Twitter: @liledit

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