Like her chief influences, Tom Waits and X, singer-songwriter Eleni Mandell lives in a black-and-white world where the gray areas matter most. During her sold-out Wednesday performance at the Fold at the Silverlake Lounge, the Angeleno limned minor-key tales of alluring but untrustworthy men, unsuspecting yet resilient women and the assorted victims of her characters' irresistible charms.
The subtly erotic mix of bluesy folk and noir shades of jazz and cabaret on her critically praised independent albums, last year's "Thrill" and 1998's "Wishbone," has garnered comparisons to alt-rock goddess PJ Harvey. Both share a devotion to Waits, not to mention a dark fascination with romantic desperation, but Mandell's music and imagery have their own deliciously vivid style.
