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POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Ex-Blaster Alvin Pumps Up Volume

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“My manager’s out there saying, ‘Great, Dave, your new album is acoustic ,’ ” joked Dave Alvin after one of many extremely electric rave-ups during his show at Jacks Sugar Shack on Friday. Alvin added that he had to keep the noise up to drown out the people chatting back at the bar, so he and his solid three-man band, the Guilty Men, powered through more than two hours of sweaty rock.

No problem. Though the relatively subdued “King of California” album may be Alvin’s best since he left the Blasters in the late ‘80s, full-force rock like Friday’s adds a compelling sense of menace and momentum.

Anyway, Alvin’s sharp-eyed story-songs (including the timely “Fourth of July” from his tenure with X) are deft, complex mixes of music and deep emotions rooted in blues, country and rock, and they work in either acoustic settings or in the midst of raucous fury. Even at his wildest on Friday, Alvin sacrificed none of his literary agility, with cultural references in the show ranging from French novelist Jean Genet to “Mystery Science Theatre 3000.”

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Alvin also twice mentioned L.A.’s new “adult alternative” radio station, 101.9 FM, hopeful of some overdue hometown airplay. Sure enough, a day later the station played his “Barn Burning”--an acoustic performance, by the way.

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