The Struts Perform Everybody Wants at House of Blues, Houston

It’s only rock and roll, but people still seem to like it.

By the time UK glam rockers The Struts hit the stage at House of Blues Thursday night, the crowd that ranged from small children to people in their 70s was clearly ready for a rock show, something that, if you checked the charts any time in the last decade or so, didn’t seem possible. From beat one, the crowd ate out of the widely outstretched hand of flamboyant, effervescent singer Luke Spiller, who spent the entire night doing whatever was necessary to keep the crowd involved.

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of their debut album, Everybody Wants, The Struts performed every song from the record in order, adding only a handful of other tunes from their canon including the raucous opener “Primadonna Like Me” and the title track to their 2023 release, Pretty Vicious.

A toothy, gyrating combination of Freddie Mercury, Mick Jagger and Austin Powers (“baby” is his favorite direct address and he at one point admonished the crowd with a cheeky “oh, behave”), Spiller took the crowd through a series of Simon Says directions including a practiced cell phone choreography during “Mary Go Round.”

“I’m going to have fun with you guys,” he said, clearly amused with the overly compliant audience. “I can get you to do anything.”

For the uninitiated, The Struts weave bits of virtually every era of rock music into their repertoire. Queen, The Rolling Stones, ’70s glam rock, ’80s hair metal, and a sturdy dose of modern alternative (see: Jet and The Killers) is brought together in a melodic, bombastic sound that is tailor made for big stages. It’s modern, but the huge drums and loud guitars backing massive anthemic hooks feel positively classic.

They weren’t a success out of the gate, however. Everybody Wants actually flopped in their native England, but they got a break when French radio stations began playing the songs. That landed them an opening spot for, of all bands, The Stones in Paris. By the time they had re-recorded and re-released the album in the U.S., its slick production and radio-friendly hooks caught on with alt-rock enthusiasts.

On Thursday, fans in attendance certainly weren’t newbies. When Spiller asked how many saw them on their first U.S. tour in 2015, a good number cheered and raised their hands. It was easy to get this crowd to sing along because they all knew the words.

Musically, The Struts were absolutely flawless. Pitch perfect and focused, it was about as good a rendering of recorded music as you’ll hear in a live setting. Granted, it’s a little jarring to see how animated Spiller was compared with his bandmates. Guitarist Adam Slack is a tremendously gifted musician, but he felt almost like a shoegazer next to his campy energetic singer.

But, when you sound this good, who cares? The rhythm section of Jed Elliot (bass) and Gethin Davies (drums) held down a formidable groove. Davies, in particular, was thunderous behind the kit. And both Elliot and Slack handled back up vocal duties admirably. That doesn’t even begin to address the impressive range and power of Spiller’s vocals, which seemed almost effortless for him despite the pipes needed to pull them off.

Opener Dirty Honey, singlehandedly holding space for all the L.A. metalheads who pine away for the days of Cinderella, Faster Pussycat and Tesla, were a tight, fun reminder of when bands built out of hair, guitar strings and bare chests. If you are into that style of music, you’d be hard pressed to find a better representative and clearly there were plenty of fans in the building just to see them.

But the headliner was the show stopper delivering the goods for 90 minutes with fans hanging on every word and answering Spiller’s every beck and call. For someone who remembers when loud guitars were the foundation of the most popular genre of popular music at the time, it was refreshing to hear a band so willingly wear their rock credentials on their collective sleeves. Never a band to shy away from their heroes — they routinely cover Queen, David Bowie, AC/DC, Sweet, Bad Company and The Stones — the influences were obvious and, on Thursday, they did their heroes and the people who came to bear witness proud.

Turns out, rock music might not be dead after all.

This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.

Related