Pop Music Reviews : Scottish Band Del Amitri Toughens Its Act at Roxy

Del Amitri is a Scottish band with a taste for both Neil Young and its own roots (the sinewy rustic nostalgia of “Gasoline Alley”-period Rod Stewart). The band also has a strong, soul-pop singer in Justin Currie, and a knack for pop hooks neither trendy nor timeless, but that unfold with a comforting familiarity. On the current album “Waking Hours,” blandness keeps a lid on things, but at the Roxy on Thursday, del Amitri did more than the toughening-up most bands do on stage.

The band members also offered an unaffected, engaging spontaneity, hooking up with each song as if it were a challenge to be dealt with anew--you could tell from their eye contact and reactions to certain riffs and flourishes that they were really listening to each other. But the real attraction of del Amitri on stage is lead guitarist Iain Harvie, a wild-eyed messiah figure who looks as if he were assigned to the wrong band at roll call. The tension between the group’s reserve and Harvie’s scary intensity was absorbing from start to finish. The band plays tonight at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano.