POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Steve Miller Mines the Golden Oldies at Universal Amphitheatre

Steve Miller may not be mining much new territory these days, but there’s still plenty of gold in his oldies. Roaring into the Universal Amphitheatre on Thursday with his sizzling eight-piece band, the veteran singer-guitarist brought vigor and, in some cases, new perspective, to a collection of tunes dating across four decades.

Miller’s great strength--as far back as his ‘60s bands that featured Boz Scaggs--has always lay in a combination of blues-based guitar licks, hard-driving rock rhythms and irresistibly catchy hooks. That the combination still works was amply proven by the unrelenting enthusiasm of a sold-out audience overflowing with many listeners who weren’t even born when Miller started recording in 1968.

To his credit, he carefully avoided the easy trap of re-treading ancient hits. Backed by a solidly professional ensemble that included Ben Sidran on piano and Billy Peterson on bass, Miller approached early songs like “Gangster of Love” and “Living in the U.S.A.” with the same energy and enthusiasm he applied to “Fly Like An Eagle” and “Abracadabra.”

More recent material was less appealing, leading speculation that Miller’s songwriting muse may have encountered one of its recurrent detours. If so, he’s still got plenty of fertile material in his repertoire to fool around with until the creative juices start flowing again.

Singer Lou Gramm opened the program with a collection of hard- edged, blue-collar songs bristling with energy not always apparent in his work with Foreigner. But Gramm’s gutsy, early Rod Stewart style was poorly supported by a back-up band that posed far better than it played.