POP REVIEW : TROWER IN RETURN TO SAN JUAN

It makes perfect sense that Robin Trower’s comeback bid seems to be clicking. After all, this is a time when more and more people’s idea of the good old days of rock now includes the ‘70s .

Trower steps into this odd time warp with a new album, “Passion,” that’s making a steady climb up the charts. And his local shows seem to be a hot ticket. The guitarist launched a sold-out two-night stand Tuesday at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, and he also plays tonight at Fender’s in Long Beach and Friday and Saturday at Reseda’s Country Club.

For followers of the Orange County club scene, the concert probably carried particular significance, and poignance. One year ago, Trower had been scheduled to perform another sold-out two-night stand at the Golden Bear, but his second night was canceled at the last minute when owners of the Huntington Beach club were evicted in a bankruptcy proceeding.

On a happier note, Robin Trower was also the first act to play the Coach House, which stepped into the void left by the razing of the Golden Bear and began booking original music a year ago. So the guitarist’s performance Tuesday also marked the club’s one year anniversary as a concert nightclub.

Meanwhile, no one’s going to confuse 1987 with the Englishman’s mid-’70s heyday, when he scored three consecutive Top 10 albums and was headlining arenas. But it’s also a far cry from his situation in recent years, where he had no record contract and was hobbling along the has-been circuit.

Though Trower’s luck has changed, his songs pretty much remain the same--both figuratively and literally. As he’s done for more than a decade, he built his set Tuesday around 1974’s “Bridge of Sighs” LP, playing as many selections from it as from “Passion.”

The old and new songs were virtually interchangeable parts, rendered with essentially the same approach: His rhythm section of bassist Dave Bronze and drummer Pete Thompson locked into a rock-solid groove, over which Trower reeled off lengthy Hendrix-inspired solos.

His blurry-fingered fret grinding on the feisty rockers was often flashy and dramatic enough--and all the air guitarists in the audience were certainly going bonkers--but Trower was often more deft and expressive on the slower, more atmospheric numbers.

Either way, the blond guitarist explored every melodic and harmonic possibility of each song, occasionally running out of ideas before he ran out of riffs. His jams were so extended that by the time he finished his fourth tune, the dreamy “Bridge of Sighs,” he had already been playing for half an hour.

One factor that helped keep the proceedings from becoming too one-dimensional and repetitious: new singer Davey Pattison, a former member of Ronnie Montrose’s Gamma. Pattison’s gruff, soulful singing was perfectly suited to the material and added a much-needed warmth and emotional edge.

The show was opened by comedian-juggler extraordinaire Chris Bliss.