Rival Sons at Lambert's [Show Review]

Rival Sons play classic rock. There’s really no other term for what this L.A. quartet does. Fronted by Scott Holiday, a blues rocking guitar hero, and Jay Buchanan, a charismatic longhair with a huge voice that mixes Paul Rodgers with Robert Plant, the band makes the kind of noise that toured arenas back in the '70s - whether the records sold or not. But the Sons’ rock & roll revivalism is probably more effective in the confines of an intimate space like Lambert’s, where their big sound has an almost overwhelming impact.

The band opened with Holiday essaying a bluesy slide solo, before drummer Mike Miley slammed out a glam rock thump that led into the seething rocker “Burn Down Los Angeles.” From there the group segued into “Gypsy Heart,” an anthem of freedom on the road that rings familiar to anyone who’s listened to classic rock radio in the last thirty years. That wasn’t the band’s only nod to rock tradition - they also threw in another traveling band tune with the grooving “All Over the Road,” a showcase ballad for Buchanan called “On My Way,” which was both pretty and powerful, the ferocious boogie “I Want More,” which interpolated Howlin’ Wolf’s “Spoonful” and Big Joe Williams’ “Baby Please Don’t Go” during its midsection, and the requisite slow blues “Soul,” with extended guitar solos and Buchanan’s earnest comment “This is a song about not giving away that which is most precious.” “Memphis Sun,” meanwhile, threw some psychedelia into the mixture in the same spirit as Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun.” Some of the songs worked better than others, of course, but it’s surprising how the band’s traditionalist arena rock pacing felt homey and lived in, rather than cheesy and clichéd.

That said, the band was at its best when it simply kicked out the jams. “Torture,” “Pressure and Time” (the title track to its next album, due out this summer on Earache) and the encore “Get What’s Coming” (“We don’t usually do encores,” noted Buchanan, “so we’ll see how this goes”) filled the room with howling vox and furious riffing, steamrolling over any cynicism (if the enthusiastic reaction of the crowd is any indication). Holiday sometimes over-indulged himself, especially on the more overtly bluesy numbers, but most of the time he was a skilled and tasteful guitarist, with an impressive technique that allowed him to switch from slide to straight and back again without missing a beat. Buchanan could stand to pull back a little, but his voice was impressive and not without soul.

Besides inviting them to play its annual High Voltage Festival (on the bill with Queensryche, which caused Miley to intro “Tell Me Something” as “Silent Lucidity”), the British magazine Classic Rock has named Rival Sons America’s best new band. For that audience, the mag may very well be correct. This is the kind of music against which punk railed and to which indie rock turns up its nose, but there’s a reason why it persists - when it’s good, it’s really good. And Rival Sons proved it’s got the right stuff to keep classic rock fresh and alive.

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