Something seemed strange at the Beauty Bar Wednesday night. Perhaps it was the sudden appearance of jackets and scarves. After three months of 100+-degree weather, a breezy 70-degree night can be a mini-shock to the system.

Or maybe it was simply the music.

Local band Dreaming of Lions, headed by Chris Leland, filled the venue with dreamy folk rock, and Canadian band Lightning Dust brought the female-vocal equivalent immediately afterward. Two songs into Dreaming of Lion’s set, Jack Johnson (Not that Jack Johnson. No, not that one, either.) of Dude City (which opened the night with an acoustic set) turned to me and said, “I feel like I should be sitting Indian-style on the ground.”

He was right. Leland’s sleep-inducing vocals (in this case, that’s a good thing) ask to be swayed to by a campfire, or maybe rocked to in a swing on the porch of a home in the Midwest after a church sermon. So, when a small group finally took initiative and plopped down in front of the speakers, nobody seemed surprised. More impressively, nobody seemed disgusted by the thought of anyone sitting on the dingy Beauty Bar floor.

Dreaming of Lions @ Beauty Bar

During Lightning Dust, one of my colleagues also decided to sit. Joining him on the ground, it was easy to tune out the personal conversations of strangers around us, as well as the loud electro beats escaping from inside the bar whenever somebody opened the door. It was a kumbaya moment, care of Canada and some Lions from the desert.

Later, when I had to stand up along with the crowd for the headliner, Seattle-based band The Cave Singers, I couldn’t recaptured the same relaxed, warm feeling. Sure, I appreciated the ho-down dance moves the larger crowd brought with them, and their style of indie folk rock doesn’t differ that much from Dreaming of Lions or Lightning Dust. Still, something was missing. I think it was a few feet down, on the dirty concrete.