POP MUSIC

Michael Gira at Iota

Singer Michael Gira is best known for his band Swans, which layered dark and depressing lyrics over noisy music slowed to a crawl. After Swans broke up almost a decade ago, Gira embarked on a solo career under the name Angels of Light, and while his lyrics haven't gotten much cheerier, his music certainly has. Tuesday night at Iota, he was backed by an energetic four-piece band called Akron/Family, which preceded its Angels of Light set with a rowdy opening set of its own. Akron/Family's initial set featured all four musicians singing together on almost every song, often as in tune as a fraternity on a drunken night.

The band's raucousness was more subdued behind Gira: The backing vocals offset the harshness of his voice, which bore the gruffness of Leonard Cohen's sing-speak. Together, the five musicians chanted and repeated phrases, which escalated from "hunt him down" to "kill that man" on the entrancing "My Sister Said." At times, the group's collaboration was as straightforward as a campfire singalong, as on a cover of Bob Dylan's "I Pity the Poor Immigrant."

Gira still maintained an air of weirdness, as he spit out nonsense syllables like a scat above Akron's soft-backing moans on "New York Girls" -- in the middle of which he stood up and shook his posterior at the audience as he strummed his acoustic guitar. Much calmer by the end of the night, Gira closed his set with a nod to his history with a stirring solo-acoustic version of Swans' "Blind."

-- Catherine P. Lewis

Steve Poltz at Jammin' Java

Steve Poltz -- what a goofball. It's clear what his former girlfriend, pop singer Jewel, saw in him, particularly after they wrote her breakthrough hit "You Were Meant for Me." Tuesday night at Jammin' Java, Poltz turned on his megawatt charm for a smattering of fans in an evening of mirth and flirtiness.

It's easy to say Poltz's songs are insubstantial. In fact, he'd probably say it. But the wry wit and goofy persona -- he rhymes "Bob Dylan" with "penicillin" -- are juvenile attempts to conceal adult feelings and ideas, as on the impossibly sweet "Lost Without You" and the cinematically plotted "Girl With the Wandering Eye," a holdover from Poltz's days as frontman for Southern California popsters the Rugburns. Jeff "Stinky" Aafedt, the Rugburns drummer, accompanied Poltz on harmony vocals and a plastic box played with metal brushes. The sound was ideal for the lyric-centric material, which might have been overwhelmed by a proper drum kit.

For his part, Poltz, a fairly impressive finger picker, played acoustic guitar, sang his songs "Spiderboy," "The Great Mystery" and others, and seemed more than happy to be in front of people and playing for them, despite this gig's being the end of a three-month tour. In these days of the tortured singer-songwriter, it's great for a change to find someone onstage having fun cutting up and making faces.

-- Buzz McClain