Awesome Color

Awesome Color may sound dazed, but the power trio isn’t confused. This two-dudes-one-chick band knows exactly what strings to pull in its retro-revival jams. Encrusted with the industrial grime appropriate to a Motor City group, Awesome Color cranks out ’70s hard rock and coats it in sludgy distortion. The list of Awesome Color’s influences spills off the tongue in an uninterrupted stream — the Stooges, Iggy Pop, Black Sabbath, the MC5. And the trio’s 2010 release, Massa Hypnos, finds the band tugging threads from Alice Cooper and Sonic Youth. (Conveniently, the group is signed to Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace label.) Awesome Color’s saturated rock isn’t original, but it’s fun as hell, and the low-profile Pistol is an ideal venue for a sweaty sound that younger listeners missed by just a few short decades.