POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Unsubtle Set From Paladins

The Paladins may be veteran road warriors, putting 75,000 or so miles on their van in a year, but all that experience couldn’t save the San Diego roots-rock trio from a bad sound mix before a packed house at the Whisky on Saturday.

Stand on one side and get trebly blasts of Dave Gonzalez’s dexterous guitar. Stand on the other and hear Tom Yearsley’s upright bass pumped to a volume that would have made Motorhead’s Lemmy smile. Stand at the corner of the upstairs bar and there was a tolerable balance--of course, you couldn’t see anything from there.

But a funny thing happened when Los Lobos’ Cesar Rosas, who produced the Paladins’ upcoming album, joined the band for the last half of its 90-minute set. On such Rosas-penned Lobos tunes as “Why Do You Do,” “Don’t Worry Baby” and “I Can’t Understand,” such things as song craft and dynamics came into play, and suddenly the bad sound wasn’t nearly as bothersome.