Q: What has nine members, styles itself as an airport and recently played a gig at Kelly's Mission Rock?

A: Burbank International, of course.

The band, headed by Henry Allen Eugene, play a mixture of pretty, haunting folk and psych noise pop. Think Arcade Fire one minute, Will Oldham the next, and a smattering of tongue-in-cheek doo-wop thrown in. In order to perform songs from his new album City of Burbank, which is currently the Deli SF's CD of the Month [ed. note: look for a new one soon], Mr. Eugene drafted in members of other projects. He added Jake Sinetos from Anderson Congress, Miranda Culp from Miranda and Company and Alex Musto from Vitiligo to beef up the sound – and it worked. The three backing singers added heaviness and depth to the vocals and made them even more powerfully emotive.

They were loud enough to captivate and carry away the audience, and by losing and bringing back the backing vocalists and violin they were able to create a vast contrast between the noisy songs and quiet ballads. It could have been chaotic, and that would have worked fine, but they actually managed to pull off near flawless transitions. There are advantages to having nine band members.

The venue was perfect for the band, there was plenty of space for all nine of them on stage, and it was pleasant to look out of the window and see the water. If you have been to Kelly's Mission Rock, you will know that it is a huge space, with several different rooms allowing for different performances to go on simultaneously. So, heading downstairs from the gig, I was surprised to run into a room of techno and belly dancers. Who knew that those things went together? The only drawback was that you could hear the techno through the floor during some of Burbank's quieter songs.

When I headed down to Mission Rock, I did not expect to dance. I almost never dance. It was a testament to the beautiful floating melodies in "Laudanum" (and the drunkenness of my boyfriend) that I found myself twirling around like an idiot to Mr. Eugene's tortured crooning of "show me pretty things ... and I lose my head." I have found myself listening to that song everyday since.

I have said a lot of positive things in this review, but I still don't feel as if my description is doing Burbank International justice. It is hard to explain why I was so impressed by this band. Let's just say that my main regret was that the audience was not larger. With the amount of effort that went into this performance, more people should have been there to witness it.

- Liz Barnes (words and photos)

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