Although the Friday concert at the Courtyard Café was labeled as an “Indie Pop Rock Show,” for me it was “Pygmalion Redemption,” as I finally had the chance to see two acts I missed when they played the festival in September.

Bathed in red, orange and yellow lights, folk/indie pop group World’s First Flying Machine opened the night with warm and mellow songs that matched the colors raining down from above.

Like a guest in the Neutral Milk Hotel (but without all the fuzz), the Champaign-Urbana sextet played intimate music that would be well suited for listening with close friends around an aging phonograph.

Anchored by the strumming of an acoustic guitar and bolstered by the presence of its electric counterpart, drums, bass, ukelele, violin and a glockenspiel, the band performed a seven song set ranging in tone from the stripped-down “Butterflies” to the swelling “Inefficient Machines.”

With so many instruments to account for, making sure everything was plugged in and feeding through the monitors correctly turned out to be a disruptive to the overall pacing of the show. But when all were producing sound in unison, it was hard not to become immersed in the layered melodies.

Although I wasn’t entirely convinced that lead singer Ben Campbell had the vocal prowess to hold his own with little support from the music during the softer moments, all shortcomings were forgiven after the lyrical eloquence and elegant simplicity of the excellent “The Ferris Wheel” found its way to my ears.

As if to prove me wrong moreover, on the fiery, bass-infused closer “Love Is An Art,” Campbell dispensed with his guitar, unwound his mic from the stand for the first time all night and finished the song screaming with his back turned to the audience

Overall, despite a bit of turbulence here and there, World’s First Flying Machine proved that it should have no problem staying aloft in the crowded C-U musical sky.

Perhaps seeking to upstage the Courtyard’s first act, St. Louis-based Gentleman Auction House boasted seven members and offered up two of just about every instrument – including drums, keyboards and guitars (not to mention the brief appearances of a trumpet and flute).

Yet, despite the surplus of bodies and instruments forced to cram into a deficient space, the band gave no indication they were hindered in any way whatsoever.

After a medium-paced opening song, the set truly got started with “ABCDEFGraveyard” off the band’s first full-length Alphabet Graveyard. Featuring a spirited group shout/clap-along and a whistle-blowing drummer wearing a bear mask with the face cut out, the song packed enough energy to propel the band through the rest of the set (not that the rest of the songs needed any such boost to get going in their own right).

Most of the show’s other offerings were also culled from this July release, including “Call It Casual” and “I Sleep In a Bed of Scissor Arms,” both of which featured the band’s signature bombastic rhythms and concise, vivid lyrics.

Near the end of the set, Gentleman Auction House paused to acknowledge its love for the night’s headliner Headlights (noting that the group’s latest album is perfect for early morning listening), before performing “A Good Son.”

Once the song had ended, a member of the audience turned and asked his friend whether it had been a cover of the aforementioned Champaign indie-rockers, a question that serves as a perfect way of describing how its plaintive melody still managed to convey a hint of optimism.

This song, it turned out, was not the group’s only local allusion.

In light of the day’s early-morning blaze that destroyed a historic building in downtown Champaign, the opening lyrics of closing number “Book of Matches” – “We set the fire that stalked a town / We set the fire that burned it down / We set the fire that raged and raged / …” – briefly took on a somber overtone, which the song’s infectiously propulsive beat quickly converted to joyous head-nodding and toe-tapping.