Amazing Baby played The Troubadour (arguably LA’s coolest venue) on Wednesday night and exemplified that putting the word ‘amazing’ in your band’s name is a ballsy, pun-ripe maneuver (amazingly bland, not as amazingly as you’d want them to be, etc.) when the music comes off a bit like an afterthought to the cultivation of an MGMT inspired psych-rock-hipster-glam mystique.

With help from a great a laser/light/fog show, the latest act from the Brooklyn music mill definitely looked the part of rock and roll heavies. Said light show,  the group’s spacey, Santana-inspired ’60s redux motif of their album art, and a few memorable guitar solos all hint that the hearts of rockstars beat inside the five normal looking guys in the band. Unfortunately, the show lacked the strong musicianship that would give legs to the Ziggy Stardust-in-Williamsburg persona they seem to want to create.

What’s unfortunate is that Rewild, Amazing Baby’s first album, really is better than decent. Tracks like “Headdress” and “Bayonets” could easily come to life if given the proper live treatment, but just didn’t flourish in the way they could have.  Although it wasn’t for lack of trying on the part of singer Will Roan and the rest of the group, the whole of the ultra-loud performance came off as a fairly limp impersonation of Amazing Baby’s studio sound and more proficient contemporaries.

Such as: opening act The Entrance Band, whose impressive Physical Graffiti’d out performance was the night’s highlight. The pysch rock trio is touring with Amazing Baby through the end of the month, so perhaps the headliners can learn something from The Entrance Band’s easy cool, thick guitar riffs and inspired jamming and make a better showing the next time around.

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