POP MUSIC : Album Debut Impressive by Stevie Salas ColorCode

Island Records has just released the debut album by Stevie Salas ColorCode, the rock ‘n’ roll power trio fronted by the Oceanside native.

Judging from the album, the 26-year-old guitarist and cohorts C.J. deVillar on bass and Winston A. Watson on drums just might steal the show from Joe Satriani, for whom they’re opening Saturday and Sunday at the California Theater downtown.

It’s not just an impressive debut, but an impressive album, period. The 10 songs, all either written or co-written by Salas, are rooted in gut-smacking hard rock (borderline heavy metal), but steeped in sweltering funk. This isn’t really surprising, given that two of the first people Salas worked with after moving to Los Angeles in 1985--he spent the first half of the decade plying the North County bar scene with This Kid’s--were George Clinton and Bootsy Collins.

Collins, in fact, contributes a brief “long-distance telerap” to “Two Bullets and a Gun,” one of the album’s standout tracks. The ingredients are all there: a catchy melody, a ferocious beat, and Salas’ delirious guitar pyrotechnics. Other songs on which Salas’ fingers do exceptionally fine gymnastics on the frets are the funky, Living Colour-ish “Stand Up!” and “The Harder They Come,” reminiscent of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.”

That Salas is an incredible guitarist is old news. After all, he spent nearly two years on the road with Rod Stewart, playing the immortal licks, riffs, solos, and fills originally laid down by Jeff Beck and Ronnie Wood.

The new news is that Salas is also a pretty amazing singer (all the other stuff he’s done, both on the road and in the studio, involved only his guitar). Salas is certainly not your typical androgynous-sounding hard-rock shrieker; his voice is rangy and resonant.

Indeed--he’s a veritable vocal chameleon, sounding, at times, like Prince (“Just Like That”), the late Jimi Hendrix (“Indian Chief”), and even Joe Cocker (“Over and Over Again”).

Many San Diego acts have been signed to major labels in the last few years, but very few have actually succeeded in making a national name for themselves. Salas certainly has the talent and the credits to be in this elite minority.

The Progressive Stage Company downtown is now featuring live music every Tuesday night. Rick Saxton and partner Rob Flury, working together as Uncle Mother Productions, are producing concerts featuring local, original-music acts you’re not likely to see anywhere else in town.

Past performers include progressive funk-rock band Daddy Longlegs, veteran folk singer Sam Hinton, acoustic folk-and-comedy duo the Rugburns, and topical singer-songwriter Deborah Liv Johnson.

“They’d play the bars if they could, but the bar scene revolves around Top 40 and discos where people don’t come out to hear music, but to have a social scene,” Saxton said. “Here, the music comes first--no one’s worried about booze sales or picking up on somebody.”

Appropriately enough, the Progressive Stage Company--at 433 G St.--holds just 50 people and doesn’t have a liquor license. The cover charge is $5.

“It’s more of a concert scene,” Saxton said. “The atmosphere we’re trying to create is completely different than Diego’s.”

Saxton and Flury initially began producing original-music concerts together last summer, at the weekly Underground at the Lyceum in Horton Plaza. Last November, they were hired to produce the Progressive Stage Company’s Homegrown Festival.

“We did all sorts of theater pieces and concerts, and when the festival ended, we were asked to continue doing the Tuesday night concerts,” Saxton said.

“And the response has been really good, both from the musicians and from the crowds. There’s so much great talent in San Diego, particularly from the songwriter angle, that gets too little exposure.”

Tuesday, the Progressive Stage Company will host a double bill: Latin-folk band Kumara, from Tijuana, and the Transylvania String Quartet, which plays ethnic folk music from Eastern Europe.

LINER NOTES: San Diego ticket brokers continue to accept “deposits” on choice seats for upcoming local concerts that have yet to be booked, much less announced--more than likely, to improve their cash flow. Among the speculative shows they advertised in last Thursday’s Reader are might-happen, might-not-happen appearances by Paul McCartney, the Grateful Dead, and New Kids on the Block (Ideal Ticket Agency); Billy Joel, Eric Clapton, and Madonna (Atlas Tickets); and Tom Petty, Billy Idol, and U2 (Trip Tickets). . . . Surprise guest at last Friday’s Afropop Dance Party at the Bacchanal in Kearny Mesa: Zairean soukous superstar Tabu Ley, with seven musicians and dancers. . . .

Jonathan Richman will be making a solo concert appearance Feb. 11 at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach. Richman is the former leader of the Modern Lovers, a quirky New England band from the 1970s whose charter members include Cars drummer Dave Robinson and Talking Heads keyboardist Jerry Harrison. . . . Soundgarden, the hot new grunge-rock band from Seattle that Spin magazine recently predicted “could become the metal band for people who hate metal,” will be appearing Feb. 16 at Iguanas in Tijuana. The group’s drummer, Matt Cameron, is from San Diego. . . .

The Belly Up is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of a black 1964 Fender Stratocaster guitar and a Fender Twin Reverb amplifier stolen from the club on Jan. 5. The stuff belongs to Rosie Flores’ guitarist. . . . Actor-cum-rocker Dennis Quaid’s expected one-night stand Monday at the Belly Up has turned into a two-nighter. He’ll perform Sunday night as well. . . .

Best concert bets for the coming week: Molly Hatchet on Thursday at the Bacchanal in Kearny Mesa; the Beat Farmers, also Thursday, at the Belly Up; the Jesus and Mary Chain and Nine Inch Nails on Friday at the California Theater; Nite Soil Man, also Friday, at the Casbah in Middletown; the Pandoras Saturday at the Spirit in Bay Park, and Leslie West on Sunday at the Bacchanal.