Watching Little Hurricane perform, you can tell Tony “Tone” Catalano is a bit of a gear nerd. On stage, he switches back and forth between effects and distortion levels. His guitar style is loud and crisp with enough grit to keep the purists satisfied. Alongside the riffs is the powerful drum backbone of Celeste “CC” Spina. Their self-proclaimed “dirty blues” sound is definitely accurate, but that doesn’t give enough credit to the clean vocals and smooth transitions throughout their new album, Gold Fever. In fact, the lead single, “Sheep in Wolves Clothes,” has more of a jog-along-the-beach vibe than anything. But, for the most part, Gold Fever is a down and dirty sweat factory of rock ‘n roll.
Fair or unfair, any blues rock duo inevitably gets compared to the White Stripes or Black Keys. Depending on where your allegiance lies in those camps, it’s probably not fair to compare Little Hurricane to either of them. The San Diego duo is equal parts dirty blues and poppy hooks. No doubt there are similarities between these young guns and their veteran counterparts, but Little Hurricane is more California than Nashville.
The chemistry between the two is palpable and we have Craigslist to thank for their pairing. After both of them ended up in San Diego, Tone was looking to break out on his own after spending a few years working with various bands in the studio in Santa Cruz. After some time in culinary school and a long layoff, CC decided to trade in the chef coat for the drum sticks, and posted a video on online. After skimming through the inescapable responses from weirdos only the internet can provide, she found Tone, who needed a drummer and was intrigued by CC’s skills and — oh yeah — they now lived on the same block! Few lessons learned; ANYTHING can be found on Craigslist, including band/national tour mates. Not everything is sketchy on that site.
We’ve seen the success of bluesy two-pieces, and Little Hurricane has the look and sound of a group with mass appeal potential. There’s a sense that Little Hurricane won’t be so little for long. As they continue storming through the USA, more people ought to get caught in the eye of it.
Video courtesy of youtube and Jam in the Van http://www.jaminthevan.com/
@Ianbrem
