Sonic Truth: John Vanderslice

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ORCHESTRAL WIZ JOHN Vanderslice ditches his band — and the overdub — on a stripped-down acoustic tour.

You can never tell what divergent audio elements San Francisco singer/songwriter orch-folkie John Vanderslice might smush together in the studio. His emotional ballads and arty rockers buzz with eclectic-yet-elegant marriages — thumping synthesizers and neoclassical cello trills ("Pixel Revolt's" "Dear Sarah Shu"), distorted feedback and crisp drum licks (Emerald City's powerful "White Dove").

Vanderslice lays down these densely textured, complex tracks at Tiny Telephone, the all-analog studio he has run in San Francisco's Mission neighborhood since 1997. Other bands — Okkervil River, Spoon — come here to make albums that take advantage of Vanderslice's old-equipment-meets-new sounds approach.

But what happens when an artist known for his technical prowess and multi-instrumental approach throws all that sonic background out the window to go solo and acoustic? "It's like walking a tightrope," says Vanderslice, who performs with just a guitar (and his plaintive voice) Saturday at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, sharing the bill — and a set of duets — with pal (and Mountain Goats front man) John Darnielle. (The pair also made an acoustic EP together that'll be sold only at shows on this tour.)

"Being onstage with an acoustic guitar and microphone, the first couple of times you do it, you realize it's a lot more exhausting," says Vanderslice. "It's just you and your guitar, and you have to carry everything. If a song ends, you have to keep it going. If you break a string, you have to stop the show while you fix it. You even have to decide if you're going to talk between songs."

But the thrill of that glaring spotlight was what made the friends and sometimes colleagues — Vanderslice produced the Goats' "Heretic Pride" and "We Shall All Be Healed" — want to reduce their songs to their most primal elements and go out on the road together. "The idea is to strip everything down and go out, two guys, two guitars and a rental car," he says. "Rock 'n' roll is lots of chaos, which is easy to hide behind. Acoustically, if you run out of voices, you have to get more creative — like maybe hitting the side of your guitar like a drum."

It helps, though, that Vanderslice steps into the solo glare armed with songs that are as lyrically rich as they are acoustically lush. In nearly a decade as a solo artist, the onetime front man for the 1990s Bay Area band Mk Ultra has penned brainy, poetic paeans to everything from the hell of the Iraq occupation ("Pixel Revolt's" "Trance Manuel") to lovers on an extremely troubled road trip ("Greyhound," from the 2002 CD "Life and Death of an American Fourtracker").

"I like tension in my songs," says Vanderslice, who also seems to relish delving both into the political and personal, often on the same track. One of his best tunes — "Angela" on "Pixel Revolt" — even finds him bemoaning a lost pet rabbit whose tragic end perhaps parallels that of the American city. Says Vanderslice, "I always think the narrator — who often isn't me — had better have some problems, or why is he striking a chord on his guitar?"

On his past two albums, 2007's "Emerald City" and 2005's "Pixel Revolt," Vanderslice seemed obsessed with the issues of September 11, from politics to the plight of the Iraqis. But his new CD, Romanian Names, due out in May, will be far more personal in scope. "I've been home with my wife for almost a year, and we're super-domestic," he says. "The songs tend to focus on love, the difficulty of being in relationships. It seems like a domestic album about domestic life."

But that doesn't mean that "Romanian Names" will sound like a lazy Saturday night at home. "I actually think it's faster then my last record, with tempos that are quicker and songs that are twitchier," says Vanderslice. "The keys are higher; there's tons of falsetto. It doesn't sound like it reflects a sleepy, super-quiet life."

Some of those new pieces will make it into the 20-song set Vanderslice will perform Saturday. But fans shouldn't expect everything from his lauded last two CDs to make the cut. "You realize which songs have shortcomings when you do them acoustically," says Vanderslice. "But some songs get even more interesting. And, besides, it's the only time, as a musician, that I can play without earplugs. It's going to sound better, and I'll feel closer to the music."

» Sixth and I Synagogue, 600 I St. NW; Sat., March 21, 8 p.m., sold out; 202-408-3100. (Gallery Place)

Photo courtesy Autumn De Wilde