La Chinga

La Chinga are a blues-infected hard rock band, no frills and no shortcuts. Thoroughly indebted to the likes of Led Zeppelin, Blue Cheers and Mountain, La Chinga live the role of a '70s rambling band. With long-haired, side-burned, leather-vested lead singer and bassist Carl Spackler as the front man and Ben Yardley in a retro-athletic shirt playing the guitarist with mystique, Jay Solyom did his best impression of John Bonham on the kit, using his sticks like sledgehammers striking an anvil. Together, this Langley power trio looked like they use the Rumpus Room as their practice space. They dressed the part, and their loud, hard rocking, hard drinking road music made Wolfmother seem like Puppydaughter. Cowbell? They had more of that. Incendiary guitar? Yardley was so hot that the fire alarm went off halfway through their set, though that may have been due to the incessantly working fog machine that smoked out most of the bar. Granted, their sound is far from original and they don't inspire much thought beyond sex, drugs, and rock & roll, but they are tight, well researched, and dedicated to their craft, and that is refreshing. What you hear on their self-titled debut album is what you can expect live.