BAEBLE CONCERTS: Rose Hill Drive at The Mercury Lounge

Bluesy, Southern-style rock 'n' roll has been around for decades, and countless long-haired bar bands have chased their fortunes by riding the same riffs as Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Allman Brothers. Few, however, are as fresh and innovative as Rose Hill Drive. Even fewer have been asked by Pete Townshend to open for The Who.

If Rose Hill Drive had been around 30 years, they'd be camping up and down the Billboard Charts. They'd be profiled by Cameron Crowe in multi-page Rolling Stone spreads and inspire movies like Almost Famous. Daniel Sproul's guitar solos – so incendiary that you can see the sweat fly from his fingers in this video – would've inspired legions of aspiring guitar gods. In short, the band would get the attention they so desperately deserve.

And Rose Hill Drive may get there still. They've got the whole package: the boogie bass, the grit 'n' soul vocals, Bonzo-based drums, and – perhaps mostly importantly – the ability to breathe new life into a genre that's seen and heard it all.

- Andrew Leahey