Pride Tiger

The Lucky Ones (Caroline/EMI)

Thin Lizzy gets voguishly name-checked now, but it took 3 Inches of Blood to pool the right ingredients with genuine gusto. The Vancouver metal band’s drummer and two guitarists spin off on Pride Tiger debut The Lucky Ones, opener “Let ‘Em Go” firing basic blues boogie through duel-guitar aggression that could just as easily be early Foo Fighters. “What It Is” then turns the corner when Bob Froese and Sunny Dhak’s axe grind begins harmonizing counterpoint to stickman/singer Matt Wood’s everyman dollar-holler. Third slotter “A Long Way Down (Shine)” opens like Jailbreak and Froese, and Sunny Dhak’s instrumental lyricism on “It’s Only You” is almost too good to be true. “No One’s Listening” launches next with the same efficacy. That goes double for back-to-back tandem “Forget Everything” and “A New Jones.” Though there’s no “The Boys Are Back in Town” here, if it’s authentication rather than retro rock you’re jonesing for, catch this quartet when they roll through your burg. (Saturday, March 15, Esther’s Follies, 10pm.)

***.5

This article appears in March 14 • 2008.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.