Fruit Bats + Vetiver at Lincoln Hall - Concert preview

For as much as indie music’s been mechanized, programmed and sequenced, there’s no shortage of acts retaliating with minimal instrumentation and unfussy arrangements. Witness Fleet Foxes and the ensuing rush of acoustic troubadours. Then there are Fruit Bats and Vetiver. Both are kindred spirits flying under the Sub Pop banner yet clearly enchanted with that nebulous period between the stripped-down ’60s and tricked-out ’70s.

With Eric D. Johnson in the captain’s chair, Fruit Bats have already covered a lot of ground. The Ruminant Band from 2009 reveled in ornate guitar licks and general steel-string hedonism, while the new Tripper realigns Johnson and his bandmates with the artier side of the folk-rock spectrum, where analog synthesizers abound. This is where Johnson’s most comfortable, his bright tenor navigating the contours of these tenderly crafted pop landscapes.

Vetiver’s Andy Cabic dials back that studio ambition slightly, though his latest, The Errant Charm, finds the West Coast fixture laying on more polish than usual. You might even catch a mild buzz despite the disc’s smooth soft-rock sheen. It’s the perfect soundtrack for a lazy day spent under the sun, staring at clouds as if they were a Rorschach test.