Loose Pistons

Montréal garage-rockers Loose Pistons certainly have excellent record collections (echoes of the Stones, Groovies and Box Tops as well as Pebbles compilations and Sundazed reissues abound in their sound) and they know their way around a sinewy, bluesy rock'n'roll groove. While they seemed a little jittery early in their Sunday night (June 22) NXNE set at Toronto's Silver Dollar Room (singer Hugo Chartrand's vocals occasionally veered off key during the first couple of numbers), the group gained strength as the night went on, closing with three of their best songs and some muscular dual guitar leads from Chartrand and Alexandre Maheu. Loose Pistons sounded tight and enthusiastic, but the young quartet is still going through the same growing pains (borrowed riffs, samey-sounding songs) as a lot of bands playing this kind of music.