South Silver Lake caught an undeniable toe-tapping rhythm from San Diego folk-rock hodgepodge Fiction Family on Tuesday night.

The band, brainchild of Nickel Creek guitarist Sean Watkins and Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman, led a delightful lineup of SoCal musicians at LA’s intimate Bootleg Theater. With camaraderie that quickly permeated the small crowd, openers The Howls and Pawn Shop Kings delivered smile-worthy performances reflective of the homey venue.

The Bootleg Theater pops up unexpectedly on an otherwise deserted stretch of Beverly Blvd. just west of Alvarado. A dozen yards away the bass becomes audible; once inside, a Silver Lake rock club dawns in repurposed glory. The Bootleg's stage is nestled in one corner of a warehouse from the mid-30s and adorned with with thick velvet stage curtains and large-bulb holiday lights. 

Handwritten drink signs coat the wall above a lively bar. Posters from past shows adorn the wall behind drink selections, which are limited to beer (six dollars on tap and anywhere from three to 10 bottled) and wine (about eight dollars a glass). A few small round tables and scattered bar stools line the room. And while plenty of spectators refresh their drinks between shows, plenty remain empty-handed throughout the evening, too. 

The Bootleg is also the type of place where visitors scrawl on bathroom shelves (made of the same unfinished wood) in kindhearted graffiti like, "Treat people with decency and kindness." People trace their names and date of visit around the sink’s mirror and leave small flyers for restaurants and other shows. It’s quite a friendly venue: lacking booths or tables, interaction with neighbors is easy and readily encouraged.

Soulful San Diego rock group The Howls led with a 30-minute set of simple feel-good tunes. They delivered a quintessential opener, gentle enough to convince a standstill crowd to nod in time, but bright and folksy enough to foretell the night’s stylistic standard. Still, their contagious camaraderie prompted me to download a few songs the next morning.

A pair of brothers fronted Pawn Shop Kings, the second act, with well-rehearsed vocal harmonies and guitar lines rooted in an Appalachian folk festival (trust me - I'm an Ohio native). They delivered a 45-minute set full of quick, occasionally jarring jumps between “the beach and the bayou,” a dichotomy stemming from a history in both Orange County and Memphis, Tenn. 

In each genre Pawn Shop Kings' tunes were lighthearted, catchy and particularly crowd-friendly, but the standouts were delivered with overwhelming, targeted honesty: the bluesy, falsetto-driven “God in You,” and passionate but beach-day breezy “You and No Other,” which silenced the room altogether. 

San Diego duo Fiction Family perform at Silver Lake's Bootleg Theater Aug. 30 (Photo by Rosalie Murphy)

Fiction Family maintained the night’s enormous friendliness after a lengthy set change. Backed up by a block-letter banner reading “Fiction Family Reunion,” Foreman and Watkins began frankly: This project is a hobby. Both men are working musicians and this is their down-time unwinding – and it was that kickback sentimentality that shined in this performance.

Calling up my Appalachian folk-festival childhood yet again, Watkins’s acoustic guitar sparked with skillful lead lines while Foreman led most of the vocals. Their songs were easily the night’s most complex, both lyrically and instrumentally, prompting introspection and narrating short stories. But they were simultaneously joyful and unfailingly sincere. Raw delight powered the duo’s playful banter and fluid transitions, and although less than half of the setlist stemmed from the tracks on their 2009 self-titled album, they sold every tune with enough candor to keep the audience head-bobbing along.

The receptive crowd demanded an encore, and Fiction Family capped the folk-rock weeknight with a charming rendition of Bob Dylan's "The Man in Me." The crowd did not immediately disperse, either: instead, couples became quintets and spectators lined the edge of the stage, chatting. In Ohio, we call it "knowing your neighbors," though they were strangers hours ago.

Like so many things in LA, the show was an unexpected but marvelous hybrid of driving-with-windows-down rock tunes and acoustic, soulful campfire ones. I expected a beachy San Diego rock show at the Bootleg and instead flashed back to summers in my Ohio hometown – and though I may never confess this to my dad (who tried adamantly to teach me about The Byrds and The Grateful Dead, which I didn't appreciate until I moved out), I enjoyed every folk-infused second.

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