POP MUSIC REVIEW : Drivin’: Loud, Poetic, Far From Essential

If it’s not an oxymoron to suggest that there might be such a thing as a quintessentially average really good American rock ‘n’ roll band, then Drivin’ n’ Cryin’ is probably it--very loud, a little poetic, enjoyably raucous and ultimately far from essential.

The Atlanta quartet’s show Wednesday at the Whisky was sponsored by the new, all-hard-rock “Pirate Radio” station KQLZ-FM (100.3). The band also has an R.E.M. connection in its Georgia past.

The former would be easier to guess than the latter, as power chords won out in concert over alternative influences--though it’s the kind of tempered hard rock that nowadays could only come out of the Southern school, a la fellow Atlantans the Black Crowes, to whom Drivin’ bears a slight resemblance if you take away the Crowes’ cocky charisma and Stones worship.

At the Whisky, this outfit (which also plays Bogart’s in Long Beach tonight) sounded much louder, prouder and fuller than on albums like the current “Fly Me Courageous,” which is a tad flat.

But though there are welcome tinges of pop-blues, Southern boogie, folk, metal and even punkish strains in Drivin’ n’ Cryin’s decent song craft (and the group encored with a great, roaring rendition of the Seeds’ monochromatic “Pushin’ Too Hard”), the show only intermittently kicked into overdrive.

A slow number late in the show really stalled the set with too much cruisin’ ‘n’ whinin’, and singer Kevn Kinney’s vague midsong mumblings about freedom of speech failed as both political cant and audience communication, making the final stretch less exhilarating than it ought to have been. They’re a better-than-fine bar band, but would you want to take this baby out on the open road?