Jay Bennett Revels in a Rich Post-Wilco Vibe

Signaled by the soundman at Spaceland on Wednesday that he was ready for the show to start, musician Jay Bennett responded from the stage, “Roger ... “ and then hesitated.

“We don’t say the next word around here,” he remarked, the next word normally being “Wilco,” and Wilco being the band he left last year just after it completed “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,” one of the most celebrated albums to come out this year.

But there wasn’t the least bit of regret evident in Bennett’s show with partner Edward Burch. The Champaign, Ill.-based pair, in fact, told the small but hearty group of fans several times that they were honored to have people come see them at all. When they played music from their new, independently released album, “The Palace at 4am (Part I),” it was a largely different experience than on the record, with just the two of them (mostly on guitars) rather than the elaborate ornamentation of the studio--an enticing blend and testimony to Bennett’s role in writing and crafting some of Wilco’s exhilaratingly creative sounds. The evening’s loose, homey vibe did nothing to undermine the richness of the duo’s melancholy meditations on loneliness and yearning, set in pastiches of ‘70s rock and country influences. And Bennett is hardly denying his past. The show included an outtake from the “Yankee” sessions and two leftovers from Wilco’s “Mermaid Avenue” teaming with Billy Bragg, featuring Bennett’s music for lyrics by Woody Guthrie.

Ragged, sure, but it was also involving and charming, keyed by the apparent fact that Bennett is much happier playing with his friend to a couple dozen people in a small club than playing second banana in Wilco.