CRAZY RHYTHMS

The Feelies formed a decade ago but you can count on one hand the number of times they’ve ventured to Los Angeles. The New Jersey quintet’s no-frills, exhilarating concert Saturday at the Variety Arts Center showed why Feelies appearances are such prized collectors’ items.

You can still detect key reference points in the Feelies’ music, like the Byrds and Velvet Underground, just as the band is itself a key reference point for outfits like R.E.M. But the group has always transcended its influences to enter its own sonic world, and its increased precision and fervor made for many inspired--and inspiring--moments of crazy rhythms Saturday.

Indeed, it’s hard to think of another rhythm-oriented band that’s as simultaneously loose and precise. Founding Feelies Glenn Mercer and Bill Million produced interlocking and colliding rhythm-guitar parts that scooted above and between the deft cross-rhythms of the two percussionists. It all added up to a glorious noise. The band will be at Al’s Bar on Friday. Opening act Hugo Largo (which also plays the Lhasa Club on Saturday) proved every bit as intriguing as its lineup of singer, violinist, two bassists and Mimi Goese’s vocal flights of fancy soaring over pulsing, dreamy textures.