He plays well with others

The one-man band is a noble figure. He can be found on your local boardwalk, a bass drum on his back, cymbals on his knees, a guitar in his hands, drumsticks tied to his elbows. Jon Brion is sort of like that, though he doesn’t play the bass with his feet.

All by himself, he can craft a complete vision of rock and pop as a venue to explore and escape his obsessions. As a songwriter, singer, soloist, producer and sideman, he regularly demonstrates a frantic versatility that has him from one moment to the next sounding like the next Randy Newman, or Brian May.

On Wednesday, Brion began a month of weekly gigs at Spaceland experimenting with a full band. This week the players were barely rehearsed, and yet they glided easily along Brion’s wave of sudden inspirations, playing new songs and some taken from Brion’s 1999 solo album, “Meaningless.”

Brion maintains his longtime weekly gig at Largo on Fridays, but said he came to Spaceland from “the need to play some rock guitar.” He opened with a Largo-ish solo set, piecing together songs by himself -- first a drum pattern, then a keyboard riff, before adding voice and guitar. Guitarist Josh Klinghoffer had only met Brion that afternoon, and yet in a second set with the full band, both dueled on guitar as if they’d been touring together for years.

Lyrics were often words of longing and bitter romance set to elegant, if spare melodies on toy piano, or a raw, lovelorn ballad that sounded like an outtake from Sun Records, as Brion sang, “I don’t need you for another excuse to cry.”

Or for a reason to make some remarkable pop music.

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Jon Brion

Where: Spaceland, 1717 Silver Lake Blvd., Silver Lake

When: Every Wednesday in November, 9 p.m.

Price: $5 ($8 Nov. 13 only, with Bare Jr. also appearing)

Contact: (213) 833-2843