Built to Spill's Tasty Jam

Built to Spill's Doug Martsch makes no attempt to look like a rock star. He's got a middle-management bowl cut, scraggly mountain-man beard and a beer belly. All of which mattered for naught on Monday when Martsch and Co. performed the first of two nights at the 9:30 club. The five-piece band played 110 minutes for a loving crowd that couldn't have cared less if BTS's leader looked like he just fell off a tractor.

Martsch's unassuming appearance carried over to his performance, which mostly featured him standing in place and shaking his right leg like a tambourine. His high, nasal Neil Youngish voice cut through the three-guitar attack, and the jams gave Martsch a chance to show off his solo skills.

But songs like "Untrustable/Part 2 (About Someone Else)," during which Martsch had to fetch a new guitar while the band vamped, dragged on too long, with the group going for noisy effects over improvisational inspiration. Martsch is a very good pop songwriter, however, whose tunes ("The Plan," "Carry the Zero") have great core melodies that don't need overextending.

But the longer numbers did give Martsch time to tinker with Built to Spill's low-budget stage design. A too-small screen was suspended high above the band, and Martsch would occasionally stop playing to operate a device that projected psychedelic drawings and videos of wacky felines frolicking. It felt like an indie-rock version of Spinal Tap's miniature Stonehenge.

-- Christopher Porter