The hallowed halls of the Fillmore echoed with rock and roll as Rival Sons brought their “Feral Roots” tour to San Francisco in support of their sixth studio release which dropped earlier this year. Filling a void for straight-up rock and roll that bands like Greta Van Fleet have forcefully pointed out exists in the music world, Rival Sons came to rock and the Bay Area crowd showed up early to roll with them.
Openers The Soft White Sixties kicked off the evening about 15 minutes ahead of the posted schedule but the room was already filling in anticipation. The Sheepdogs followed with a set of Southern Rock inspired tunes from Saskatoon, Canada that would make any Allman Brothers fan giddy with their clean, dueling guitar leads.
Sufficiently warmed up lubricated by the flow of cocktails, the San Francisco crowd was clearly pumped when Rival Sons keyboardist Todd Ögren strolled on stage to announce a mini comedy set by Dean Delray. The 10 minutes of standup went by quickly but could easily have been skipped because the crowd was clearly growing restless.
Finally it was time and Rival Sons strolled onto the stage, clearly ready to rock the Fillmore as they launched into “Back in the Woods.” Those attending damned well better have liked the new album, because the band did not hold back on unleashing the new material live, plowing through 7 songs (half the setlist) off of Feral Roots and leaving little room to do justice to the rest of their catalog during the whopping hour and 45 minute set.
The band sounded undeniably great. Front man Jay Bunchanan’s vocals soared above the sometimes-jittery crowd while Scott Holiday grooved on his impressive collection of guitars, never breaking a sweat. This is a band that after 10 years still clearly enjoys performing in front of a receptive crowd of any size and their infectious performance kept the room packed until almost midnight on a Wednesday night.
THE SHEEPDOGS
THE SOFT WHITE SIXTIES
SETLIST
Back in the Woods
Sugar on the Bone
Pressure and Time
Electric Man
Too Bad
Jordan
Face of Light
Feral Roots
Torture
Open My Eyes
End of Forever
Do Your Worst
ENCORE
Shooting Stars
Keep On Swinging
