I’m sure Brooklyn Bowl is a fantastic venue when everyone is there to watch the band performing. When there are only a few bowlers, no one really at the restaurant, and the performance area is completely full — I bet that’s incredible. Unfortunately, none of those things were happening on Thursday night for Via Audio, who played to a distracted audience of about 100 and a whole bunch of bowlers and drinkers.

The venue seemed to work in the favor of the opener, fellow Brooklyn band Akudama. With a set of all up-tempo indie rock, nothing was lost in the cavernous and loud bowling alley. It was lead singer Blake Charleton’s birthday that night — which made him especially gleeful throughout the set and even gave him the courage to throw out some rock star moves, like sliding around on his knees. Too bad the audience was too dispersed to notice.

Via Audio played almost exclusively songs from their sophomore album Animalore – songs that by and large are subtle and a little slow. Though the tight musicianship and beautiful voice of singer Jessica Martin would probably fill up any other venue, at Brooklyn Bowl most of the flourishes were lost in the sound of falling pins. The band was at their best when they played two new songs had never been seen live before. The loud and gloriously catchy new number “Bite” was far and away the best of the night and the only song that really got the audience moving. The pounding rhythm and danceable melody I saw has me eagerly awaiting the recording.

For the majority of the night, however, the whole of the audience stayed about ten feet away from the stage, never warming up to much more than head bopping. The lack of enthusiasm was by no means Via Audio’s fault; they were constantly energetic and entertaining even during their mellower songs. I blame the huge number of other things to do at Brooklyn Bowl (like watch Aladdin on the giant screens).  Even with the extraordinary vocals from Jessica Martin and wonderful, slithering, groovy beats, the band unfortunately acted as background music all night long.