It is Thursday night at Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa. The clock says it is 11:30 and the crowd of plastered rabble-rousers is getting anxious. The room stinks of cheap beer and cigarettes. I make small conversation with the person on my right just to kill the time. I sense that the few words I can get in between this lady’s drunken slurs about Bowie, the 80s and her failed marriage, fall upon ears connected to a mind already hibernating for the winter. Everyone here checked out hours ago.

A man resembling an early ‘60s Dylan with thick, curled hair dressed in black and denim, his jeans tucked in his leather boots, takes the stage. He sips what looks to be whiskey and without a word, he begins to pick softly on his guitar. He opens his mouth to sing, but realizes he has already forgotten the words to his song. He abruptly barks apologies into the microphone and begins again. The tone for the night was set.

Bondy goes solo

Auguste Arthur “Scott” Bondy disbanded the band Verbena after an extensive tour in 2003. He has since been busy with his own work. He’s released two well-received solo albums (the latest being 2009’s “When the Devil’s Loose”). Many of his songs have been featured on television. Long Beach band Delta Spirit frequently covers his tunes in impromptu live performances. Since splitting from Verbena, Bondy’s music has become decidedly more minimalistic and folk in nature. His simple, imperfect picking, gentle harmonica mixes with a driving percussion and gravel rasp to produce a sound comparable to Dylan, Kensrue and Bazan.

But it is Bondy’s words that set his albums apart from most of his modern, pop-country contemporaries. Like Flannery O’ Connor, Bondy frequently weaves in biblical illustration to color themes of vice and redemption into his ballads of murder and love in the untamed west. But Bondy never shows his cards. While he certainly is a master of utilizing biblical narrative, it is hard to tell what worldview Bondy actually subscribes to, if any.

The performance: from expectations to reality

I had built high expectations for Bondy’s performance on Thursday night. I had come prepared for a night of nostalgic escape and quiet pondering on the nature of God, man, heaven and the fall, through Bondy’s music. I had expected a small, simple bar show with a pensive, reserved Bondy politely picking and strumming. I had hoped the crowd would have the decency to shut up and listen to a man singing songs he had written for them. Admittedly, I had expected the venue to be a little shady, with less than impressive sound and lighting. As long as it was better than Chain Reaction, an all-ages club in Anaheim, I would be okay.

The bar itself was pretty trashy–– shoes stuck to the floor due to all the spilled beverages. The crowd could best be described as a well-contained mob. However, what upset me most was that Bondy did not seem to care. I would venture to guess that because of the rowdy environment, Bondy was almost nonchalant about what his songs actually sounded like. Whenever the songs would begin to transition into something less than flippant, someone would break the fragile mood with an overpowering howl or song request. Bondy would respond to the crowd either with loud profanity or some well-placed irony, “Thanks for being such a nice, well-mannered crowd.”

Many of his folk ballads were given the electric treatment in an attempt to resemble something out of Wilco’s “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.” While I deeply resonate with the sound Bondy was going for, the execution was so sloppy that even I, an avid fan of experimentalism in folk, was set off.

Maybe I am like those in attendance of the Newport Folk Festival in ’65. Maybe I just do not see the genius in the electricity. However, it is my humble opinion that Bondy did not bring his “A” game Thursday night. While the show would have been acceptable for a know-nothing, local band, I had expected more from Bondy. Admittedly, I will probably see him next time he rolls into L.A. While surprising, this negative experience does not discourage me from enjoying Bondy and especially his albums. I am listening to him even now as I write this review.