Almost No One Witnesses Peter Walker Rock

Tuesday night, El Corazon was like the Key hosting the Storm. One hoot, holler, or clap could be heard anywhere in the building. Believe us—we hung out in the adjacent bar until L.A. singer-songwriter Peter Walker took the stage. It wasn't that we didn’t care about the other bands—Argo sounded pretty good—but we didn't want to be on the floor alone.

Things didn't improve for Walker's set. Maybe nobody knew him—Who? The fast, furious actor? RoboCop?—or maybe it was a standard Tuesday-in-December turnout. Either way, Walker—actually a three-piece that's adopted the frontman's name—rocked the dozen-plus "crowd" without a sign of apathy or frustration. His seven songs—and courteous "Thanks, guys" following each one—had the scattered attendees bobbing their heads for half an hour.

Since we'd never heard Walker's stuff, and he didn't introduce the songs by name, we don't know what was played—but it must have been largely from his recent sophomore effort, Young Gravity. And since El Corazon maintains one of the city's most frequently panned sound systems, the only lyrics we could make out...we weren't sure we could make out. Walker's voice, anyway, was somewhere between smokey gravel and bitter whine—reminiscent of Pete Droge.

And the band, even when undercut by whistling feedback, sounded good. The drums were punchy, the bass driving, and Walker's guitar licks (and couple of mini-jams) just loose enough to push the songs past pop-catchiness into easy rock. We dug it. And dug Walker's friendly, aloof attitude. He didn't appear fazed by the vacant floor, and accepted applause with a fleeting, modest grin. He couldn't have cared less that a third of the people there were actually dudes from headliner Division Day.

Next time Peter Walker's in town, we hope more people go see him. But it didn't look like he'd give a shit if it was just us.