Gomez hones its friendly rock fusion

The members of Gomez landed their space-rock ship on the House of Blues stage Monday, and out popped a friendly swirl of blues, country, psychedelia and jazz that sounded thoroughly modern while evoking classic touchstones.

The British sextet’s music vaguely recalled Little Feat, the Grateful Dead and Moby Grape, but also shared a glancing kinship with such contemporaries as Beachwood Sparks, Counting Crows and the North Mississippi Allstars.

The group has been honing its organically trippy music since winning the U.K.’s coveted Mercury Music Prize for its 1998 debut album, “Bring It On.”

On Monday, the first of two consecutive nights at the West Hollywood club, Gomez highlighted its third album, “In Our Gun,” and also played older works.

With each collection, the members have honed their fusion of blues rock, jam-band music and country rock.

As on the recordings, in concert the players traded instruments and shared vocal duties among three musicians, always casual in manner yet musically precise.

They never lapsed into tedious expansiveness, despite one overly cerebral number that veered on a dime from driving rock to plodding jazz.

More enjoyable were such wryly progressive numbers as “Sound of Sounds,” which blended fun electronic noises with the more conventional guitars, keyboards, bass, drums and percussion.

Exhorting the audience with handclaps and witty banter, the band would have been right at home in an arena.

Judging by the crowd’s enthusiastic response, Gomez may yet end up in one.