Lars Vegas Rises Above Lounge Shtick

The Boston group Lars Vegas has been saddled with the “lounge-rock” moniker. Although it might adore sharkskin suits and look as if it has a hankering for highballs, Lars Vegas in its show at Spaceland on Tuesday showed that it’s more than just martini fashion and lounge-lizard shtick.

Filling the stage with seven players (including saxophonist Dana Colley from the Boston band Morphine), the outfit offers a cool jazz and bossa nova blend that was a soothing tonic, part loose-limbed combo and part poetic performance art. Unfortunately, Vegas delivered its songs about a “Love of Jones” and a “Junkie Rock Star”--from its debut album, “Nervada”--to a nearly empty room around midnight.

Better live than on record, lyricist Tom Stenquist--a latter-day Frank Sinatra if Sinatra were a poetry-slam beatnik--proved that his group is more than a study in today’s retro bar habits. Gary Wallen used violin bows to work eerie tones out of his vibraphone, and Colley is a master at inky subtlety.

The band may never break out of its cult niche, but it delivered a nightclub-perfect show that was funny, suave and instrumentally accomplished.

Second-billed Tex-Twil punched out a Stranglers-like set that felt painfully campy, but early opener Jude Christodal (whose stage name is simply Jude) is one to catch while he’s still working out his act in local clubs. Concocting a seamless, gripping blend of hip-hop, singer-songwriter folk and jazzy guitars, Jude--a pared-down, casual foil to Lars Vegas’ snappy cool--is an artist to watch.

* Lars Vegas plays with Harry Dean Stanton on Saturday at Jacks Sugar Shack, 1707 N. Vine St., 9 p.m. $8. (310) 652-9268.