Ex-Luna pair put on dreamy dinner show

About halfway through Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips' performance Wednesday night, I began to realize how often I was hearing the words "dream" and "sleep" in their lyrics. This makes sense: The couple (they recently married) have been making what amount to lullabies for a few years now. At the Triple Door, those lullabies translated gratifyingly well to dinner music.

Wareham has been mining a dreamy, sleepy musical vein for two decades now. He was the guitarist and vocalist for the late '80s band Galaxie 500, whose takeoffs from the quieter side of the Velvet Underground helped codify the "shoegaze" and "dream-pop" ends of indie rock. In the '90s and early 2000s, he formed Luna, who sharpened Galaxie's meandering mannerisms and threw in a dose of quiet humor. Phillips joined the band in 2000 on bass, and within a few years she and the frontman were an item.

Luna disbanded in 2004, but Dean and Britta continue making music together, most recently on the Rounder disc "Back Numbers." Their 16-song set Wednesday night (including a two-song encore) concentrated heavily on the new album and 2003's "L'Avventura," though Wareham dipped smartly into his own back catalog a few times. Luna was represented by four selections, including the final encore, "Bewitched."

Review

Wednesday night, The Triple Door, Seattle

Galaxie 500, meanwhile, received airings of its songs "Strange" and "Tugboat." For both of these, the keyboardist and melodica player Lara Meyerratken strapped on a guitar to help create a din distinctly grainier than the oft-aquatic sound the band (which also included drummer Anthony LaMarca) generated.

The Dean and Britta material fit well with Wareham's better-known earlier work, with "Back Numbers" songs like "Words You Used To Say" and "Singer Sing" creating an immersive mood. Just as seductive were the moments they would break that mood. Wareham did this often with sly, discursive guitar solos (often on a smallish, bright-gold Fender). But the capper belongs to Phillips. On the duo's cover of Lee Hazlewood's "You Turned My Head Around" — also on "Back Numbers" — she let out the chorus in a full belt that, in the midst of all that sleepy dreaminess, felt like a well-timed shock.