Miho Hatori with shirtless dancers at Market Hotel. — Photo by Amanda Farah

Despite the eclectic line-up, there was a surprisingly sparse turnout at Market Hotel on Thursday night.  Opener Fluffy Lumbers, who hails from the Ridgewood across the Hudson, in particular was met with a cool reception.  The few that had turned out early kept to the periphery during the averagely loud set (then again, volume might have had something to do with it).  Fluffy Lumbers, a one-man guy-with-guitar project, had a bit of help with an additional live guitarist and some pre-recorded samples.  While his recordings have a garage-pop sound, the live performance is noise rock, vocals drowned out by harmonics and distortion.  But it’s energetic, lead-driven, exciting noise rock.

So the somewhat jangly indie pop of Virginians Wild Nothing wasn’t a congruent shift forward.  There were discernible choruses and beats.  A gaggle of girls showed their approval for the out of towners by leaving their sofa perch and dancing and shouting their approval.  Had they not asked the band’s name, it would have been easy to assume they were friends of the group.  But the girls had the right idea, and mood in the room started to lift as more people filed through the door.

Miho Hatori was the big draw of the evening.  Even if you don’t recognize the name, chances are you know something she’s done: Hatori spent the late ‘90s with Cibo Matto and then provided vocals on the first Gorillaz record.  On Thursday she was showcasing her latest project, which she calls “New Optimism.” It was largely electronic laptop music with live bass, occasionally live electronic drums, and Hatori howling the vocals.

For some songs she was flanked by three shirtless male dancers wearing gold eye masks.  She joined them in simply choreographed dances that served as effective distractions from how empty the stage would otherwise be. For the song “Jetsetter,” she invited the audience up on stage and incited a full-on dance party.  The audience even persuaded her to perform an encore, a rarity for a non-headliner.

Hatori is a hard act to follow, but Blissed Out is so far removed that there is no comparing the two.  The electronic duo crouched on the stage over a sea of equipment: small synthesizers, endless pedals and manipulators.  Over their heads, an odd assortment of VHS videos were projected.  These included strange and slightly creepy claymation with which Frank Zappa was somehow associated, scrambled porn, and some other Frank Zappa-affiliated film that was too warped with age to be clear.  Though the audience had thinned out, those that remained were transfixed by the projects, and the secretive pair.

There is a limit to how fascinating two guys adjusting knobs can be; adding a multimedia element was the right idea.  But videos weren’t in keeping with the sometimes harsh ambient noise, and whenever a tape needed to be switched there was a blue screen projected on the wall for a good thirty seconds at a stretch.  It’s a good start, though, and if they can tighten up the visual element, it will make for pretty compelling viewing.