Rival Sons rock the Palladium In support of new album ‘Darkfighter’

When it comes to modern bands who are carrying the classic rock torch of the ’60s and ‘70s,Rival Sons, of Long Beach, California, are in rarified air.

The quartet of frontman Jay Buchanan, guitarist Scott Holiday, bassist Mike Miley and drummer Dave Beste have garnered acclaim for their emphatic live performances. Their seventh album "Darkfighter", due out June 2 from Low Country Sound and Atlantic Records, also has a ton of anticipationbehind its release.

On May 31, fans will be able to get a preview of what to expect from the upcoming full-length project, when Rival Sons roll on through as part of their tour in support of it, with a show at The Palladium.

It's highly recommended to show up right when the doors open at 6 p.m. because The Los Angeles Rockers, The Record Company and Starcrawler will be rounding out the bill and they shouldn't be missed, either.

As with a lot of records that have come out over the past couple of years, the COVID-19 pandemic was a catalyst in the creation of "Darkfighter." In similar fashion to their previous releases, both Buchanan and Holiday wanted to go in a different direction while working on the album.

"It's really interesting the way everything came about," Buchanan said.

Buchanan added, "When we were forced into lockdown back in March 2020, nobodyhad any idea what was going to be happening. For us, we were looking at it as we had this tour coming up, but it was looking like it wasn't going to happen so we were going to have to cancel it."

Buchanan said, "Then it became that the following tour was going to be canceled too...we then started working on this record and in terms of a vision, I think that Scott and I, while writing and working remotely, were looking to change course. We both had an appetite to switch up the way that we were approaching the songwriting and we tend to do that with each record."

Before too long, Buchanan said, "we realized that we were actually going to dump out the entire junk drawer and rebuild, just rebuild the way that we were writing songs. We didn't set out to make two albums in the way that we have 'Darkfighter' coming up soon followed by 'Lightbringer 'in October. It wasn't our intention to make this a two-album affair. It just ended up that way through osmosis."

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When it comes to both albums, they both share a connection in terms of storytelling while being different in how the music is conveyed. They’re both bound to different in effect on whoever islistening to the tracks.

"I really see ‘Lightbringer’ as a continuation of the story that we have on ‘Darkfighter,’" Buchanan said. "On ‘Darkfighter’, if there is a protagonist there, what you have is a journey with somebody who is not willing to give up...Making sure that self-preservation is very much intact and not letting that darkness in."

With "Lightbringer," Buchanan said, "it's not that it's a happy-go-lucky album. It's still very heavyand it's very heavy in its subject matter in a similar way that ‘Darkfighter’ is. It begins in a very, very different way and it also leaves you in a very, very different way."

On April 5, Rival Sons released a music video for the track ,"Bird In The Hand", the third in a trilogy following videos for "Rapture" and "Nobody Wants To Die".

The recent video was shot in black and white with stacks of cash being thrown around, a lot of drinking and atwist at the end with Buchanan driving off dressed as a preacher.

"With these videos, this is a medium that we don't have a ton of experience in," Buchanan said. "Scott and I will have these ideas for these videos and we’ll try to put together a treatment. In that video, we had the idea of showing the gang and the preacher just coming back from a heist because during the previous two videos, you see the gang trying toget at the preacher so this video is kind of a prequel to that."

Buchanan noted, "We don't have a lot of experience when it comes to video production and all of that, so this was a very quick education for us. We’re in that fun area where we keep breaking a bunch of rules because we don't know any better, so it's still very fresh for us as well."

"The idea to keep it in black and white came from us wanting that video to have its own space apart from the previous two videos," Buchanan adds. "We just wanted it to have its own vibe."

For the upcoming show, the audience can expect to hear "Darkfighter" played from start to finish with all the songs in between. The band also plans on playing some of their hits as well, so fans will get the full gamut of their catalog.

"What we tend to do when we put out a new record is that we’ll just play the entire thing," Buchanan said. "We’ll play every song and then we’ll follow up with some of our greatest hits, that sort of thing. It's important to us to play this new album because this is our current identity."

With "Darkfighter" coming out, Buchanan said, "this is the only time. that's appropriate to play all of these songs. It wouldn't make sense if we tried to do it next year, but this is our new material, this is who we are at this moment so it works best if we just embrace that."

What: Rival Sons presents the "Darkfighter" tour

When: 6 p.m. May 31

Where: The Palladium, 261 Main St., Worcester

How much: $30-$75. Link at thepalladium.net.