More than just the dB’s

Even in these dumbed-down times, there’s room for clever pop. Such acts as Fountains of Wayne, Semisonic and even John Mayer don’t exactly owe a debt to veteran singer-songwriters Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey, who more than two decades ago performed together in pioneering North Carolina jangle-pop band the dB’s. But one could hear common threads in songs the pair played during a rare Saturday appearance at McCabe’s Guitar Shop.

They hadn’t done an L.A. show together in more than a decade, and they only recently reunited to participate in a benefit for ailing musician Alejandro Escovedo. But Holsapple and Stamey displayed an easy camaraderie. Mostly playing acoustic guitars, with Stamey occasionally switching to piano, they harmonized deftly and confidently rendered sophisticated tunes variously reminiscent of the Everly Brothers, the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel but never merely aping anyone.

The almost 90-minute set spanned such early dB’s tunes as “Moving in Your Sleep,” the duo’s 1991 album “Mavericks” and each artist’s older solo work as well as new material from forthcoming individual albums. The pair nicely balanced whimsical, upbeat sentiments like equating reliable love with a cherished old record and more somber, at times painfully sincere romantic musings. These quieter moments teetered on tedium, but the music’s fine quality and the players’ good-natured gentility proved winsome.