No One Missed Smith’s ‘Misery’

If Elliott Smith had listened closely to the song requests shouted during his Monday concert at Spaceland, he might have been pleased that no one asked for “Miss Misery,” his Oscar-nominated tune from “Good Will Hunting.”

Maybe the crowd knew that the singer-songwriter refrains from playing the song live. But Smith’s set didn’t need that mainstream touchstone anyway. Drawing from his major-label debut, “XO,” plus earlier albums, he was instantly arresting, exuding the sort of melancholy bliss that made Kurt Cobain’s introverted torment so fetching.

Smith’s vulnerable cynicism was rendered more through genteel pop guilt trips than with crashing three-chord rages.

The music drew on such classic, even over-used, influences as the Beatles and the Kinks, but the songs were modern reflections on romance, depression and hope.The spare instrumentation was often surprisingly lush, with Smith’s delicate guitar work and the precise vocal harmonies of his bassist and drummer building to a delightful shimmer.

All that talk of failure and disappointment made Smith’s performance feel like a protracted poisoned love letter, but it wasn’t depressing. As with Nirvana, there ultimately was something ycomforting about the freaky obsessions and foibles of a seemingly ordinary guy.

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* Elliott Smith plays tonight at the Roxy, 9009 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, 9 p.m. $10. (310) 278-9457.