Bands perform for small crowd at the Bishop

The band was late, but no one complained.

The scene was classic as the bar crowd sat, drank and socialized with friends; everyone seemed to know everyone. With local band Qur’an Qur’an in the night’s lineup, the familiarity came as no surprise.

On Wednesday, Bad Weather California and Qur’an Qur’an headlined at The Bishop Bar. Attendees came for the bar’s relaxed atmosphere and stayed for the rock ’n’ roll.
 
“We’re punk-rock music that doesn’t sound like punk-rock,” said Chris Adolf, Bad Weather California’s lead singer. “Our band is the history of American rock ’n’ roll.”

Adolf is more than a musician ­— he is a performer. By the second song, the crowd was already “Ooh-ing” and “Aah-ing” to the lyrics, with one small difference between band and bar: While the audience was whispering, Adolf’s lyrics were shouts.

“One of my mentors taught me not to be afraid of people who want to watch you play music,” Adolf said.

This fear — or lack thereof — sums up the band’s act. Instead of a concert venue, the vibe at The Bishop was more like an energetic basement; one couple danced drunkenly in the corner, and a microphone on stage squeaked.

“Let me do that again,” Adolf said.

The song started over, and the feeling changed.

Music, for Adolf, is emotion. It’s loud, sweaty and full of advice.

“If you can laugh / if you can smile / then you’re OK with me,” a line of the band’s lyrics goes.

“The world just gives you a feeling, and you’re not in control of it,” Adolf said. “A lot of my music has been inspired by mundane things, little life experiences and the feeling they give you.”

Personal experience has also affected Qur’an Qur’an’s music. The band’s popular song “It Takes a Village to Raise a Nation of Children to Hold Us Back” was written about lead singer Eric Dines’ newborn son.

“The song’s about the joys of fatherhood — watching them grow, build muscles and bones and get a body to live their life with,” Dines said.

The quartet was dressed in plaid button-downs and plain sweatshirts. Although the band looked as if it came straight from The Bishop’s dance floor, the 20-person audience may not have appreciated the similarity.

One girl swayed to the music, but the rest stood straight. Dines interacted with the audience, but other band members rarely looked up.

The question of whether the band was playing for itself or the crowd seemed unanswered.

The show was treated like a still-life, and in some ways, it became one.

However, the melodies were clear, and the band’s vocal performance was varied.

“It’s a lot of different elements. Sometimes the band does solo stuff, and sometimes there’s this great, fuller sound,” audience member Jessica Berndt said.

Berndt said the post-jam band’s fuller sound catches the heart of music because the songs were written by band members and about the musicians’ lives.

“I see myself as a father and, I don’t know, an improviser,” Dines said. “I play jazz with life.”