Countrified Rock From Big House

With L.A. country station KZLA-FM embracing such classic-rockers as the Eagles as part of the Southern California country music heritage, it’s no wonder the station is boosting the Bakersfield-based band Big House. On Wednesday at the Troubadour, the sextet, whose self-titled debut album came out recently on MCA Nashville, sometimes seemed almost like an Eagles tribute act.

That’s not just because genial frontman Monty Byrom sings a lot like Don Henley (with some Robert Palmer blue-eyed soul tossed in), but because several of the band’s songs could pass for outtakes from early Eagles albums. The loping “Amarillo,” for example, echoes “Witchy Woman.”

And though Big House opened the show with Hank Williams’ “No Teardrops Tonight,” the rest of the hourlong set was marked mostly by countrified rock references. “Blue Train” clip-clopped with an economical rhythm a la J.J. Cale. The clap-along coda of “You Ain’t Lonely Yet” sounded a lot like Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock & Roll.”

With the twin-twang guitars of Chuck Seaton and David Neuhauser, the band proved capable of rocking convincingly, though that aspect was rarely used Wednesday. And the live presence, forged by countless country-bar gigs, was winningly personable, though in a low-key, aw-shucks manner.

But in the conservative country world, this is still downright progressive, placing Big House alongside such other recent rebels-by-default as the Mavericks and BR5-49 in spicing up the playlists--at least relatively speaking.