Geraldine Fibbers Deliver Talent, Vision of Distinction

Death, decay, emotional paralysis, bottled-up rage and explosive vengeance--some things are simply timeless.

That was certainly the case with the Geraldine Fibbers’ show Saturday at the El Rey Theatre, coming on the heels of the release of the Los Angeles band’s second formal album, “Butch”--for good and bad.

Those ingredients were at the core of an exhilaratingly distinctive concert, a dynamic display of vision and talent that cements earlier impressions that this band could be the latest in a select line of key acts in an L.A. legacy that stretches from the Doors through X.

As promising and captivating as the band was before, with the urbanized Appalachianisms of its 1995 release “Lost Somewhere Between the Earth and My Home,” it offers even more now. Carla Bozulich, always a strong presence, Saturday seemed to have a new level of confidence and determination. And the band’s musical attraction is greater than ever, washes of sound centering on the sometimes graceful, sometimes frantic guitar of Nels Cline (now a full member after joining as a fill-in last year), enriched by the bowed acoustic bass of William Tuttle and violin of temp member Jessica Moss.

Though the set--following a winning performance by L.A.’s Claw Hammer that combined Beefheartian art-blues and wry rock wit--was a short 80 minutes including encores, peaks were many.

The most revelatory may have come in the third song, the new album’s title track. Joined by second violinist Leyna Popach, who will take over for Moss on the rest of the current tour, the band took on an ad hoc string quartet atmosphere, with Bozulich kneeling by her microphone before rising to sing almost torch-like a portrait of personal confusion.

At other times the band, with drummer Kevin Fitzgerald anchoring, simply exploded with unbridled, unmannered energy, while in such new songs as “California Tuffy” adding melodic enticements to match the musical bravado.

And yet the Fibbers proved harder than ever to peg. Bozulich certainly doesn’t fit anywhere in even the current expansive field of women-made music that has fueled the Lilith Fair tour. And despite the haunting ruralisms of many of its dark themes and some of its music, the band’s urban, arty edge sets it apart from the so-called No Depression movement of the Jayhawks, Son Volt, et al. The new range of sounds even makes it hard to stick with the Hollywood Hillbillies tag that had applied to much of the band’s earlier material.

No matter. Great bands provide their own contexts.