Better than: Any California jamband since Garcia died.

A great rock guitarist needs a signature affectation. Ethan Miller's happens to be an abrupt upstrum that, combined with a backward stagger, probably makes him something of an onstage hazard to his bandmates. When he really gets into it, as he does with elemental regularity, the Howlin Rain leader resembles a spasmodic marionette under the influence of a power greater than himself—call it the power of rawk. With his long thinning hair, big black beard, and "special shirt"—as he referred to the spiffy brown vintage-'70s number he was sporting—Miller also sometimes resembles a defrocked rabbi on the run. And when he opens his mouth, the history of classic arena-rock vocals passes before your ears in a full-throated wail embracing the combined spirits of Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart, Leslie West, Greg Rolie, and the ghost of Freddy Mercury.