Pop Music Review : Cadillac Tramps Take a Detour From New Material

The reliably hard-driving Orange County band the Cadillac Tramps took a large and loyal following on a typically sweat-soaked excursion on Friday at the Palace. But if the Tramps want to be able to take fans around the emotional bends as well as zoom down the high-energy speedway, they are going to have to load their concerts with all the options. At the Palace they failed to include some of the most powerful add-ons in their recently improved product line--namely, some darkly telling songs from their new album, “It’s Allright.”

The Tramps have honed a double-guitar attack that is a sort of Yardbirds update in which punk drive is harnessed to old-line blues and rock ‘n’ roll licks, with razory guitar solos giving the band’s blunt force a cutting edge.

Songs rode bouncing or churning punk-rock beats, and strong backing vocals gave choruses a lift behind front man Mike (Gabby) Gaborno’s growly lead. Gaborno was an antic, Spanglish-spouting mixture of a homeboy, a shuffling hi-de-ho man, and an ample-bellied Falstaff. But in their single-minded devotion to a stomping good time, the Tramps passed up the chance for greater depth that their new material affords.