Kevin Bronson on September 27th, 2014

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There wasn’t anything wrong with Temples’ concert on Thursday night at the Fonda Theatre that a smaller room, a deeper catalog and a bigger light show wouldn’t have helped.

• ||| Photos by David Benjamin

The British quartet – James Edward Bagshaw, Thomas Edward James Walmsley, Samuel Lloyd Toms and Adam Smith – emerged from the Midlands town of Kettering in 2013 with a trickle of singles, and, in February, Temples released its debut album “Sun Structures” via Heavenly Recordings. It’s a fine album, especially if you want to feel as if you’ve crawled into an hour-long time capsule and witnessed Marc Bolan work out some things on a guitar.

But even with Coachella and a Coachella-week show at the Roxy on their resumé, it may have been overly ambitious for Temples to take on the Fonda, despite having the
balcony closed and the floor almost filled with psychedelic rock fanatics and Anglophiles of all ages.

Bathed mostly in hazy magenta light, Temples gave an hour of measured bombast that would have made their advocates – old-guarders such as Noel Gallagher and Johnny Marr are among their proponents – proud. All the calling cards were there, some expanded for the occasion: “Sun Structures'” title track, “Keep in the Dark,” “Colours to Life,” “Mesmerize” and, of course, “Shelter Song,” perfect, as Bagshaw sings, for sharing “a drink or three.”

Light on banter and lighter on theatrics, Temples’ excursion to a big room felt almost clinical, though. That’s a mild complaint, of course; hordes of the current next-gen psych-rockers could do with a little more precision. But if, for instance, you use Tame Impala’s first-album shows as a barometer, Temples were merely warm on this night rather than white-hot. Their temperature figures to rise.

Portland sonic adventures Wampire preceded Temples with a hit-and-miss set that reached a gallop with their great single “The Amazing Heart Attack;” the quintet’s sophomore album “Bazaar” comes out next week. L.A.’s Fever the Ghost opened the night with a set that was absent their usual pyrotechnics, owing to an oppressive, bottom-heavy sound mix that all but obliterated the quartet’s vocals and screaming-meemie synths.