Knitting Factory: Quality, If Not Cutting Edge

Christening itself in low-key style, the Knitting Factory Hollywood opened its doors two months later than originally scheduled, with weekend billings that were relatively mainstream for the offspring of the avant-garde New York original.

Future programs promise some diversity, however. And Friday’s satisfying acoustic set from Seattle alt-pop favorites the Posies, as well as Saturday’s local-music program featuring rootsy Echo Park darlings Wiskey Biscuit and Beachwood Sparks, reflected the club’s commitment to promoting quality acts while attempting to establish itself as a destination for tourists and locals in advance of Hollywood’s hoped-for rejuvenation.

Patrons pay no fee to enter the common area of the Hollywood Boulevard club. In this strangely comfortable environment of spare, post-industrial metal and warm mahogany appointments, they can drink at the bar or dine in the restaurant. Concert-goers purchase tickets at a central box office outside the main room and a more intimate lounge area.

Construction delays reportedly held up the opening, and staff members needed every extra second as they worked Friday on finishing touches, handled minor glitches and left a few things undone. But everything appeared ready in the main room for Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer, who recently reconvened as the Posies after having disbanded the larger group.

Trading lead vocals and harmonizing sweetly, they performed a 90-minute-plus set of new songs, old favorites and eclectic covers.

Saturday proved more rocking, as Wiskey Biscuit rambled through selections from its recent independent release, “Santa Ana River Delta Blues.” Led by singer-accordionist Jason Mason, the septet veered from goofy anthems to mournful laments, mostly evoking a chaotic, ‘70s-era Rolling Stones, with some folkier and punkier notes thrown in.

Beachwood Sparks followed with a more nuanced set of trippy, Byrds-Burritos country-rock drawn from its self-titled debut album. Blending airy harmonies, ringing guitars, lap steel and organ, the quartet crafted palpable moods with bits of reverb and feedback, slipping suddenly from sprawling jams into full-fledged tunes and back again in an elastic cosmic flow.