A Band That’s Hot

Michael On Fire, a powerful three-piece rock-folk-blues band, will be making a rare local appearance when it opens for Australia’s Little River Band on Friday night at the Ventura Theatre.

Michael On Fire has been on an two-year tour since relocating to Nashville. Texas slide guitar whiz Stevie Ray Davis is history, but Londoner Ced Curtis is just as good, a master of the crisp and clean solo. This is a band with 1,200 original songs, which means it could probably play longer than a week of Grateful Dead concerts.

There are three Michael On Fire albums. The latest, “Keepers of the Flame,” has sold 4,500 copies in the last three months and has been getting airplay on more than 170 stations--unfortunately, none of them are around here. Last month the band performed the title song, the first single, on a television broadcast seen in five states. This band is living proof that there is life (and success) without MTV and record deals.

Forget objectivity. This is rock ‘n’ roll as good as it gets, and you’ll be stuck trying to invent some new adjectives to describe this group. Michael On Fire deserves half of Bruce Springsteen’s money. Tickets are $18.50.