Radin, Carlton work to make a connection

It's tough enough keeping an audience's attention while playing songs from an album that won't be available for another four weeks. Add to that the additional obstacle of a club that was just below stifling on the heat index, and you've got the challenge facing Joshua Radin at the Middle East Downstairs on Thursday.

He made it through the experience, but there were times when it seemed like the type of frustrating gig he'd be commiserating about with his tourmates afterward.

That certainly seemed the case with solo acoustic opener Alexa Wilkinson. There were times when the relationship songs she sang in her sweet, mildly nasal voice could barely be heard above the crowd, but the appreciative applause after each song indicated that she wasn't playing to a wall.

Next came Vanessa Carlton, whose instrumental approach - primarily piano and violin - gave her songs a distinct chamber-pop feel. She betrayed her own ambivalence toward career-maker "A Thousand Miles" by getting it out of the way three songs in and, later, suggesting that it allowed her the freedom to write songs like the small-scale minor-key epic "Half a Week Before the Winter."

Her introduction of the latter as being about "a bloody battle between vampires and unicorns" didn't make it easy to take Carlton seriously, nor did her constant reference to songs from latest album, "Heroes & Thieves," as "chapters." But as twee as she could be, she had a way with a melody and, thanks to the violin, a hint of depth. And as evidenced by the flourish she added to the end of "Home" that showed how much the chord progression owed to "Don't Stop Believin'," Carlton has a sense of humor about her music.

Putative headliner Radin followed and immediately faced the indignity of performing to an audience that had thinned out substantially after Carlton left the stage. With his delicate guitar and a voice that sat just barely above a whisper as he shared songs from his upcoming "Simple Times," he was so low-key that he made Jack Johnson look like Little Richard, even with a full band behind him. When keyboardist Laura Jansen sang harmony on "You Got Growin Up to Do" and "The Fear You Won't Fall," the songs had the hushed beauty of quietcore pioneers Low.

But they were also susceptible to interference, whether from the band playing upstairs or the chatter of the audience. At one point, Radin scolded the crowd for being too noisy, but he pressed on regardless, finishing up by hopping onto the floor and inviting everyone to circle him as he sang "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" without amplification. It was his loudest song of the night by far.