BY WYNDHAM LEWIS

During the past decade, The Clientele have released five fantastically consistent, literate, well-crafted, sixties tinged pop albums. It is amazing, given that output, that they have neither produced a single dud nor stylistic misstep. That said, it is remarkable that, unlike their equally consistent peers in the Doves or Belle and Sebastian, they have never built a particularly strong audience in either the US or UK.

Even in a setting like Great Scott in Allston, which is more beer bar than nightclub, their recent performance seemed at times like a reading rather than a rock show. With Alisdair MacLean's breathy vocals, crystalline-reverb heavy guitar playing, any voice in the audience that rose above a whisper seemed like a rude interruption. The library soft vibe is precisely what makes the Clientele's records such great accompaniment to cocktail and dinner parties. Anyone listening recognizes the catchy hooks, the complexity of the word play, and the subtlety of the delivery, and passive listeners may not even notice that the stereo is on, because this is what mellow evenings with friends sound like.

One of the pleasures of seeing a show at Great Scott is that there is no backstage area. Any band that plays, ultimately introduces itself to the audience twice, once when they take the stage and once when they walk through the front door. Like featured guests who arrive late to a party in their honor, bands are often found trying not to draw attention, while having a few drinks at the front bar. On this evening, the band entered without fanfare, wearing the kind of weather appropriate tweed and twill overcoats that made them look like an after-work crowd from Penguin Classics heading to the pub.

Set opener "Since K Got Over Me" perfectly illustrates the qualities that make The Clientele a terrific studio and unfortunately, a bit of a lackluster live act. The lead track from 2005's Strange Geometry, it is among the band's most sonically dynamic tunes. Starting slow the song builds over a reverb laden hook to a sneaky/clever homage to Phil Spector/The Ronettes and then on to the chorus that alternates the lines "everything's so lucid and so creepy, since K got over me" and "every night is strange geometry, since K got over me." Really impressive words and melody on record, and though it was recast identically live, there was no real thrill in hearing it in that setting. It almost seemed like a cruel joke that even between song banter was delivered in a tone that made it difficult to make out.

The band continued though a set that was a mix of new songs from Bonfires on the Heath and old faves from their previous four albums. Multi-instrumentalist Mel Draisey, bassist James Hornsey and Drummer Mark Keen all ably reproduce their studio efforts and look cool doing so, but the sum of the parts was precisely equal to the whole. Draisey particularly, a pretty blonde, who at turns played violin, percussion and keys in the same song, looked great but rather unanimated on stage.

The Clientele put on one of those shows where audience members attempt to dance to music that isn't dance music in an effort to prove their devotion and show enthusiasm. By the time their most upbeat and danceable song "Bookshop Casanova" came around as an obvious encore, it was the right kind of jolt, but it came too late to revive the body.

In the end, it seems The Clientele is a band that far more people should know and listen to, but isn't necessarily a must see at 11:30PM on a Sunday night.