Gata Negra was a three-piece band including Whitney Rehr who plays bass in I’m A Boy but plays a left-handed Telecaster in this band. Rehr doesn’t just play that Telecaster, as with any guitar hero, or even burgeoning guitar hero, it’s an extension of her body and psyche. No lie, to me a lot of Gata Negra’s material was pretty straight forward guitar rock inspired by music that predates the ‘80s. But where this band parts company with other acts following that well-worn path is in writing a new version of it. At times they could sound punky and bluesy like The Gits and at others like The Pretenders but without the same level of desperation that band displayed on their first two records. Ultimately they didn’t sound like they were trying to be another band. They did play like they really wanted to be The Who or Zeppelin or Jimi. But the musicianship was there. Rehr could probably solo with the best of them and sure did plenty of that across the band’s set but none of it was boring and it all fit in with the mood of the song—something a lot of guitar wizards seem to forget, all-too impressed with their own ability. Rehr also seems to have intelligent, thoughtful lyrics that cut to the core of their subjects with incisiveness and sensitivity. The most impressive song of the set was “When I Was an Addict.” The title says it all but few have articulated the lies, self-betrayal and detachment from reality that is the life of an addict as well as she does in this song. Musically it was haunting and sweeping like the best material on Jeff Buckely’s Mystery White Boy. It was also a break from the sonic texture of the rest of the set and it sounded like a dream of times past and bordered on nostalgic except that it came off more like the narrator was looking honestly at a time of life that would be utterly alien had it not happened to her. I wasn’t as similarly affected by the entire set but it was a solid, strong performance all around, the rhythm section was flawless, and images of Tommy Bolin and Galaxie 500 flashed into my mind throughout.