HERE COMES THE SONS

After six albums in 15 years, and touring alongside a raft of A-listers, Rival Sons reckon it's their time to move up to the next level. And new album Darkfighter might just take them there

- Joe Daly 

It’s a balmy evening in Southern California, and the Honda Center – home ice of the National Hockey League’s Anaheim Ducks – has been transformed into a surging, spiritualised rock’n’roll revival, courtesy of Rival Sons and headliners Greta Van Fleet. The place is nearly full to capacity when Rival Sons pile into their adrenalised, seven-song opening set. As frontman Jay Buchanan introduces Shooting Stars, the 18,000-strong audience lift their phones into the air with flashlights facing the stage, creating a zoomed-in Milky Way galaxy – albeit with clouds of cannabis smoke floating in the middle. For Buchanan, the moment is a time warp.

Sitting down with Classic Rock a few days later, he recalls his pre-Rival Sons days, touring the US with his old band, Buchanan.

“We were just making ends meet,” he says. “I slept in the RV in our manager’s parking lot just three blocks down the street from the Honda Center. I would drive past it and hear about the big shows going on there and I would wonder: ‘When is it going to be my turn?’”

Pulling into the gated entrance of a windowless concrete compound in North Hollywood, we punch a code into a keypad and the creaky steel gate pulls back. We’ve arrived at Rival Sons’ rehearsal studio, where the guys are running through some new material before their year kicks into high gear. This afternoon we’ll be getting the lowdown on Darkfighter, their forthcoming seventh new album, and Lightbringer, another new album, to be released later this year.