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NIC ARMSTRONG & THE THIEVES
THE GREATEST WHITE LIAR
NEW WEST
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With a sharp voice that recalls the glory days of compressed ’60s mono recordings and a delivery that splits the dif between old Robert Plant and Jack White, Brit-born blues wailer Nic Armstrong has time on his side. In a post-Strokes world of noisy neo-garage clatter, Liar’s nostalgic embrace of the raucous Yardbirds/Stones/Beatles vortex is of the moment. Derivative? Definitely. But such standout tracks as "Broken Mouth Blues," a harp-soaked ramble torn from Highway 61–era Bob’s back pages, provide a contact buzz of beery gratification. The blue-eyed ballad "I’ll Come to You" works too. A few tracks veer closer to Gerry and the Pacemakers than to the Fab Four, but most of these pub-rocking originals sit well alongside hip-shaking chestnuts like Leiber/Butler’s "Down Home Girl" (reverently covered in another lifetime by the early Stones, which is probably where Armstrong learned it) and Chuck Berry’s "I Wanna Be Your Driver." Nic Armstrong & the Thieves + the Bravery | July 15 | Roxy, 279 Tremont St, Boston | 617.228.6000
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