Digestible Artiness, Waif-Like Persona

Trying too hard can be as bad as not trying at all. That was the lesson demonstrated by Jane Siberry in her concert at the Wiltern Theatre on Friday. The Canadian singer-songwriter has tapped into an up-market audience that revelled in her waif-like persona, easily digestable artiness and bemused song-poems.

Siberry ran into trouble with such epic suites as “Red High Heels” and “The Bird in the Gravel.” Despite abrupt time changes and stellar vocal work, these overly ambitious songs don’t include enough compelling lyrical or musical ideas to sustain their 10-minute lengths.

The second-billed Roches projected a more world-weary personality in their set. Although their music is rather ordinary country-folk, it’s fleshed out by the three sisters’ humorously post-feminist lyrics and mesmerizing three-part harmonies. There aren’t too many acts out there that can do justice to the Coasters’ “Yakety Yak” and Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus.”