Material: Five-piece Reagan Browne is a hard-rock band with multiple influences. Melodic pop melodies cut through the hard rock, sometimes crunching metal rhythms. Southern rock/country comes out of Browne as he belts out his vocals. The songs are well-written and have nice grooves; new listeners can get into the music quickly.
Songs like “You Gotta Get Loose” and “Loud but Unheard” rocked and left you feeling alive. “Gypsy Woman’s Got The Groove” is a great tune that takes you on a journey (at least the live performance did) both lyrically and musically, giving you just enough story line to fill in the blanks with your own life.
Musicianship: Browne can wail. He has an extremely powerful voice and only lets loose a few times. He screamed in perfect pitch during “Watch My World” and even as it ended he was still wailing in tune. The other players are a step down in musicianship. They don’t seem to have the experience that Browne has and it was distracting. It could have been that the band had let go of a previous guitar player/ singer. Aside from that, the rhythm section stood tall: Beezy and Halacy held down the bottom end. Maldonado, although young, held his own on rhythm guitar, dancing while Krull shredded to his own delight. There were a few flubs throughout the set, but in the end it sounded alright.
Performance: Browne is a good frontman who works the stage: running, sitting, standing and talking to the crowd. He has good stage presence and having that great voice doesn’t hurt. The rest of the band stayed out of the spotlight and did what they had to do. Browne’s new release “Gypsy Woman’s Got the Groove” features top-notch names in the music business, and maybe that had a little to do with great expectations. Regardless, this show was a decent outing.
Summary: Reagan Browne is a solid all-around band. They are borderline metal hard-rock with catchy melodies. The new album features well-known musicians: Eric Johnson, Marty Friedman (Megadeth), Billy Sheehan (Vai, David Lee Roth, Mr. Big, UFO, Michael Shenker) and Browne himself has been likened to David Coverdale and Chris Cornell.
The band, however, seems to be missing something. Maybe it’s the lineup adjustment, maybe it’s something else. Regardless, Browne is on the cusp of breaking through to the next level.
The Players: Reagan Browne, vocals; Jeremy Krull, guitars; Andrew Maldonado, guitars; Ted Beezy, bass; Dylan Halacy, drums.
Photo by Pierce Brochetti
Venue: Whisky A Go Go
City: West Hollywood, CA
Contact: [email protected]
Web: ReaganBrowne.com
Reagan Browne - "Gypsy Woman's Got The Groove" feat. Eric Johnson
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