POP MUSIC REVIEW : T-Birds Are Still a Top-Performance Machine : The band proved at Irvine Meadows that, while founding guitarist Jimmie Vaughan, who quit the band in June, was a valuable member, he wasn’t irreplaceable.

Whoever the mechanic was who did the overhaul on the Fabulous Thunderbirds, you and I ought to get his number.

The Austin, Tex., band lost one of the most efficient drive-shafts in roots-rock when founding guitarist Jimmie Vaughan quit in June to pursue other musical options, including an upcoming duo album with his younger brother, Stevie Ray. A valuable part, that Vaughan, but as it turns out, not an irreplaceable one. Playing before about 4,000 fans at Irvine Meadows in a free concert Wednesday night that was part of the “Parliament Sound Series,” the T-Birds showed that they haven’t lost any horsepower in the transition. Always a reliably strong stage band, the Thunderbirds offered more resources than ever in a satisfying show that lasted nearly 2 hours.

Of course, front man Kim Wilson didn’t call a mechanic to retool the band he co-founded with Vaughan in 1974. He summoned two New England-based guitarists, Michael (Duke) Robillard and Doug (The Kid) Bangham. Neither of them is a household name (although Robillard has long been esteemed in blues circles), but as replacement parts they promise to keep the Thunderbirds humming along as a high-performance machine.

To drop the automotive metaphor for a moment, and pick up a sporting one, Robillard and Bangham functioned much as a classic tandem of football running backs.

Bangham was the fullback, plunging ahead with brute, linear force and an unusually muscular guitar tone. His solos were built around raw, repeated licks, thrusting ever forward (with his slicked-back hair and pompadour, the lanky Bangham also preserves the Jimmie Vaughan ‘50s-rocker look).

Robillard, despite his stocky build, was more the deft, shifty halfback type when it came to fingerboard runs. With a varied assortment of moves--bending notes, or chopping up the rhythm unexpectedly--Robillard managed to inject freshness and surprise into the basic Chuck Berry crank that underlies much of the T-Birds’ rocking repertoire. Robillard got most of the solo time (although Bangham also had ample opportunity to show off), playing more prolifically than the laconic Vaughan, without ever growing stale or repetitious.

A favorite playing partner of Jimmie Vaughan’s (the two worked together on one of Robillard’s solo albums), Robillard wasn’t about to follow in his predecessor’s fret-steps. During the signature, spiky guitar solo of “Tuff Enuff,” the T-Birds’ biggest hit, Robillard kept the shape of Vaughan’s fine creation but adopted a more wiry, strangled tone to give it an accent of his own.

With two strong guitarists flanking him, and growing increasingly more energetic in their stage presence as the show went on, singer Wilson probably shouldered less of the work than he did with Vaughan on hand. In fact, he left the spotlight to Robillard for one extended blues number; the guitarist turned it into a highlight with a clear, effective vocal and a scat singing duet with his guitar.

Wilson’s most important contribution, aside from his engaging harmonica solos, was his ability to extract an evocative, if narrow, slice of life from the T-Birds’ basic, good-time material. The overwhelming majority of Fabulous Thunderbirds songs are appreciations of good-rocking times and good-looking women--overworked subjects that in most hands quickly lead to tedium and banality. But Wilson’s throaty, assured singing was full of pleasure and personality. Without straining or pandering, he conveyed the delight that comes from taking a good, long gaze at some sexy, head-turning presence.

Still, it was good to hear the T-Birds launch into “The Monkey,” by Fats Domino’s old collaborator, Dave Bartholomew. With its swampy, Creedence Clearwater Revival-style sound, the song offers a sardonic, jaundiced take on humankind’s propensity to act in a way that makes one wonder just where our species fits on the evolutionary ladder. An occasional idea song can’t hurt; one hopes that the T-Birds will come up with a few more ideas on subsequent albums than they have while maintaining a stylistic holding pattern since their 1986 commercial breakthrough with “Tuff Enuff.” Some explorations of love’s deeper, more soulful and inner-directed side would help, too.

“The Monkey,” plus a ‘40s-style jump blues song and two slower mid-set blues numbers that served as showcases for each guitarist offered changes of pace from the headlong, Berry-derived rockers that are the T-Birds’ staple. In each mode, Austin Delone’s tasty piano and organ work gave the sound fullness (he stumbled only with some lame, mercifully brief mock-saxophone blasts on synthesizer during “Rock This Place”), and the straight-and-simple rhythm team of drummer Fran Christina and bassist Preston Hubbard gave it clout. As a stage band, at least, the new version of the Thunderbirds may be even more Fabulous than the old one.

The Paladins’ 55-minute opening set had peak moments in which the San Diego blues and rockabilly trio echoed the brawny swagger of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble.

The heavy shuffle, “Years Since Yesterday,” was especially resonant with its tale of being haunted by the memory of a lost love. But when the set promised to take off, singer-guitarist Dave Gonzales lost momentum by going on a long guitar solo during the furtive “Lover’s Rock.” The ideas ran out before the solo did, and the show finished on a plateau instead of a peak.

The Paladins and the James Harman Band will share a bill at Peppers Golden Bear Sept. 22.