Sibling Revelry : The Bacon Brothers--Actor Kevin and Composer Michael--Are Enjoying of Their Joint Musical Careers

From “Footloose” to “Apollo 13,” actor Kevin Bacon has made many celluloid star turns in his career. But these days it’s music that gives the 41-year-old Philadelphia native his most stimulating creative buzz.

“I believe you need a little bit of danger and butterflies in your creative life,” Bacon said in a recent telephone interview.

“Not that I don’t love making movies, but they don’t give me butterflies anymore except maybe opening weekends. It’s petty nice to be up there on stage [playing music] and to get that sense of ‘anything can happen.’ And hand-in-hand with that goes that incredible adrenaline rush.”

For five years he’s fronted the Bacon Brothers band with his older sibling Michael. The sextet (which appears at Club Caprice in Redondo Beach tonight and at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on Sunday) plays mostly acoustic music that encompasses ‘60s- and ‘70s-influenced folk, rock, soul and country. The group summed up its sound with the title of its 1997 “Forosoco” debut album, which merges “folk, rock, soul and country” into one newly conceived word.

Michael Bacon has his own movie career, of sorts.

A successful composer of film and television scores (he won an Emmy Award for the documentary “The Kennedys” in 1993) and a singer-songwriter with two solo albums under his belt, he is also a seasoned live performer. Though he has played the guitar and written songs with his brother for many years, Kevin didn’t appear on stage as a musician until the Bacon Brothers.

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The siblings’ first gig came about when Kevin and Michael were asked to perform at a Philadelphia club in 1994.

“I had a lot of reservations,” recalled Michael, who is nine years older than Kevin.

“I didn’t think Kevin would fall into the performing aspect of playing music [right away] . . . But he very quickly enjoyed it and fell into feeling pretty relaxed on stage.”

The Bacon Brothers’ debut went so well that more offers to perform came tumbling in. It certainly didn’t hurt that a movie star was sharing lead vocals. Both brothers acknowledge that Kevin’s celebrity immediately generated solid turnouts at clubs and media exposure; the band has appeared on “The Tonight Show” and “Late Night With Conan O’Brien.”

“When most bands start out, they play in a 300-seat club and 10 people show up,” says Michael. “When we went out and played at a 300-seat club, maybe 250 showed up. When we first started the band, people were curious.”

The Bacon Brothers have been, at best, sporadically active. Kevin’s busy film career clearly comes first for him--his latest picture, the parapsych thriller, “Stir of Echoes” opened this weekend. And Michael continues to get plenty of work as a composer.

Nevertheless, the Bacons believe their band has improved significantly. They both feel their newly released second album, “Getting There,” represents an important step forward.

“The songwriting has taken a step up [with the new album], and the guys that are on the record are guys we’ve had a chance to play with now for a long time [as regular members of the band],” said Kevin, who shares the songwriting duties with Michael.

“I also felt a lot more comfortable vocally with this record. Making the first one was like doing a lot of theater and then all of a sudden doing your first movie. It was overwhelming.”

Kevin and Michael initially went hunting for a major record deal. When that search proved futile, they decided to go the independent label route.

Big label or not, Kevin keeps on writing.

“On movie sets you have downtime,” he said. “Some people watch movies, read books, talk on the phone or play cards. I have a guitar and sometimes a keyboard and a drum machine. I write songs.”

Kevin should get plenty of songwriting time in during the next few months. He’s currently shooting director Paul Verhoeven’s “The Hollow Man”--a big-budget thriller about an invisible guy--in Los Angeles.

So, the Bacon Brothers have left January and February open for live shows. Though Michael and Kevin will return home every 10 days or so to spend time with their families, their upcoming tour will still be their longest.

One goal is to continue to turn Kevin Bacon curiosity seekers into Bacon Brothers devotees.

“Over the last year, when we go anywhere in the country, I would say, a quarter of the audience is mouthing the lyrics as we sing,” Michael said. “That’s very rewarding for a performer to know that people know your music.”

* The Bacon Brothers appear tonight at Club Caprice, 1700 S. Pacific Coast Highway, Redondo Beach, (310) 316-1700. 7:30 p.m. $19.95. The band also performs Sunday night at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano, (949) 496-8927. 8 p.m. $19.95.