The surprisingly large crowd of people gathered in the Courtyard two hours before headliner David Bazan was scheduled to appear were eased into the night with an acoustic performance by Nic and Heather Dillon, a husband and wife duo who call themselves Casados.

I’d seen the Urbana act a couple years back at the Local Music Awards, an event where their gentle ballads were no match for the fully stocked bar and rowdy atmosphere.

In a quieter setting, though, the pair’s ambient compositions were allowed to shine. With warm notes and frequent harmonizing, the pair generated a folksy backwoods sound that provided an apt soundtrack to combat the bitter winter weather outside.

On each song, as in the between-song banter (which should have been kept to a minimum, as Nic’s thoughts were much better expressed in lyrical form), Heather was content to let her husband take the lead – using her mandolin to nicely accentuate her husband’s strumming and laughing at at all the right times during his spoken interludes.

Like Casados, veteran Tooth and Nail Records act Starflyer 59 brought only two members to the stage – guitarist/vocalist Jason Martin and drummer Trey Many (bassist Steven Dail was absent) – but boasted a sound that was literally more electric.

Although cramming 15 years worth of material into a nine song set almost seems like it could be part of a magic act, the bigger trick was how it felt like the performance ended as soon as it started.

Being as it was my first time seeing and hearing the band, I didn’t really feel as if any song really stood out considerably from the rest (nor did any seem particularly subpar). Instead, all of the music just blended together into one fairly homogenous mass – like one 45-minute long track – that went by in a flash.

Somewhat curiously, the group played only one song (the vocally and musically restrained “Minor Keys”) from its just released full-length Dial M. Rather, Starflyer 59 chose to draw equally from all across its discography, including “The Frontman,” a harder-edged indie rock tune from 2006’s My Island, and the Jimmy Eat World-lite cut “No More New” off 1999’s Everybody Makes Mistakes.

Unlike his chatty stage predecessors, Martin finished each song with a simple “Thanks” uttered in his even baritone. In fact, he talked more to his drummer than to the audience – continually asking Many if he was ready, as if the group was in a hurry to get on with it and get off the stage.

And soon enough they were. A solid and agreeable set, to be sure. But not quite one that would indicate the group has enjoyed such a lengthy and distinguished career.

Set List

A Good Living
I Win
E.P. Nights
Minor Keys
Not Funny
I Drive A Lot
Easy Street
The Frontman
No More New

It’s not like David Bazan is likely to read this post, but I’ll admit it’s still kind of intimidating to write about a man who flippantly dismissed music critics with lines like “Just pretend / That you don’t make your living / From selling advertising” on his exceptional debut solo EP Fewer Moving Parts.

But, over the course of the hour-long acoustic set, Bazan only performed one song from this 2006 record (“Fewer Broken Pieces”), a track that witnesses the musician ruminating on his decision to go solo.

And it’s no wonder the topic is on his mind, as it seemed to be on everyone else’s. After playing three songs (and about every three after that), Bazan paused to ask the crowd if they had any questions – a solicitation that elicited queries about his previous work with Pedro the Lion and Headphones, as well as a brazen inquiry about whether he is an alcoholic. (He doesn’t think so.)

Although Bazan did appease the audience with “Priests and Paramedics” and “Transcontinental,” the soft-spoken frontman was more interested in debuting material from his forthcoming full-length. To this end, he mentioned that he was performing nine of that disc’s 10 tracks (though to my count there were only eight).

Even more so than on his previous musical output, these new offerings featured lyrics that placed Bazan’s religious skepticism and drinking habits (two subjects that often seem to go hand-in-hand) squarely at the forefront – with a healthy dose of clever wordplay to temper the subject matter’s seriousness.

Packed in front of the stage, the crowd listened attentively to every word the man spoke and sang, from his unique take on the Christmas standard “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” to his thoughts on having a daughter who can now talk back to him.

Although I’m more partial to Bazan when he’s backed by a full array of instruments, there’s still something undeniably rewarding about hearing him in an intimate acoustic setting that leaves his music as bare as his soul.

Set List

(New Song)
Please Baby Please
Weeds in the Wheat
Priests and Paramedics (Pedro the Lion)
Transcontinental (Pedro the Lion)
Curse Your Branches
Harmless Sparks
Fewer Broken Pieces
Shit Talker (Headphones)
When We Fell
June 18, 1976 (Pedro the Lion)
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
Bearing Witness
The Stitches