Alternative faves connect beyond the airwaves

Los Angeles now has two alt-rock radio stations -- KROQ and Indie 103.1 -- but does that mean more variety for discerning listeners? Apparently not when it comes to buzz bands.

Both stations have gotten behind the British quintet the Kaiser Chiefs and San Diego’s Louis XIV, which helps explain why fans packed Spaceland to see both groups on Wednesday night.

Named after a South African soccer team, the Leeds-based Kaiser Chiefs were the headliners, but the crowd was slightly thicker throughout LXIV’s hard-charging 30-minute set.

The Chiefs’ eccentric, mismatched look -- googly-eyed singer Ricky Wilson’s striped, crested jacket; keyboardist Nick Baines’ porkpie hat; bassist Simon Rix’s polo-shirt-and-scarf combination; etc. -- was as oddly fetching as their fusion of practically every pop era from the ‘60s (the Kinks) to the present (Franz Ferdinand).

The group’d single “I Predict a Riot” was your basic anthemic blood-pumper, but much of the Chiefs’ 45-minute performance had artier tendencies, signaling a broader range for the band’s forthcoming debut album, “Employment.”

Still, this show was all about connecting, and the players’ focused energy (especially Nick Hodgson’s stellar drumming) got the job done.

LXIV had more disturbed undercurrents tugging on such highlights as its zingy, stomping single “Finding Out True Love Is Blind.” The scruffy, suit-clad quartet mixed punk, new-wave, glam and ‘70s hard-rock sounds and flourishes into roguish tunes from its upcoming “Illegal Tender” EP. (A full album is due in April.)

The songs impressively teetered on the brink of copyright infringement without falling over the edge, but that also made LXIV seem like a spiffed-up bar band. Indeed, its positioning as a major-label contender proves mainly that the whole “new rock” craze is starting to look a lot like the grunge-band feeding frenzy of the early ‘90s.