A large crowd showed up for the show at the Cat in the Cream this past Sunday night, many people either knew the bands personally or had heard about the show from the buzz on campus. Everyone in the audience seemed ready to take a break from work, buy a warm cat cookie and sit down together to hear some good music.

PEAKS, the opening band, is composed of College juniors Tom Kearney, Peter Hartmann, Rachel Ishikawa, College senior Duncan Standish and double-degree junior Nate Mendelsohn, and it emerged two years ago under the name. At Sunday’s show they were accompanied by College junior Adam Hirsch on sax. The group, originally called Beyoncé Knows Best changed its name after releasing an impressive first EP, Young Frisk, the result of a group Winter Term project. Wilder Maker, the main act, also recently switched its name. Formerly known as Boy Without God, the band is a project of lead guitar player, singer and songwriter Gabe Birnbaum. Birnbaum’s songs have gained attention for their tight harmonies and lush accompanying arrangements.

From the very beginning, the atmosphere was casual and friendly; audience members commented on the levels during the sound check before PEAKS’ set. Kearney started out the set, creating an absorbing sonic intro with ambient electronics, when suddenly, strong guitar strumming laid down the beat for the first song. Throughout the band’s set there were many simple, feel good grooves. It was impossible not to focus intently on Ishikawa, one of the main vocalists, as she sang sincere melodies that made you almost forget to blink. PEAKS’ lyrics are startlingly sweet and poetic, and their songs bring together a sense of many committed spirits in synch. All five songs in the set were from the band’s debut EP. The highlight was the last song, “Transit,” a memorable tune that gave a sense of calming closure.

In between sets there was a great deal of mingling, and the crowd actually grew sparser as the main act prepared to go on. Yet when Wilder Maker started playing, the audience’s concentration instantly changed— from the start you sensed it was music that required a special level of attention. Just by hearing the sincerity in Birnbaum’s voice it was clear that he writes all the songs. They are understandably his: from the distinctly honest and patient quality of his voice to the refreshingly chaotic climaxes most of the songs eventually reached.

The group itself has a few core members but also has a pool of around 15 rotating instrumentalists who come in and out depending on availability. For this show, Birnbaum was joined by three band mates who played guitar, bass, drums and keyboards. Compared to the complex arrangements on past recordings, this performance felt somewhat stripped down. In one song, however, Birnbaum picked up his saxophone out of nowhere and took a solo, a surprising moment that demonstrated the lengths the band could go musically. There were some unfortunate problems with feedback, namely a buzzing coming from one of the amps that both bands seemed to struggle with. But the audience members who remained by the end were fully supportive and there to receive everything the performers had to offer.

Both groups provoked a kind of quiet reflection in the audience members. It might have been the lyrics, which had such twists and turns in imagery and emotional gravity that you simply had to keep listening intently. But there was also a general energy to the night. Some songs would reach an intensity that surprised — like PEAKS’ sections of powerful group singing, or Birnbaum’s occasional shouting into his microphone — but these moments soothed, in the same way the right rhythms can actually reverberate with everything inside you. Each band managed to toe a subtle line that teetered between controlled and peaceful, to rowdy, real and immediate.