Country music favorite Gary Allan will return to the Surf Ballroom stage Friday, March 25, as part of his "Get Off On the Pain" Tour.
Tickets are $35 in advance, $40 at the door.
Doors open at 8 p.m.
Doors open at 8 p.m.
In "Get Off On the Pain," the down-home piece that provides the name for his new MCA Nashville collection, Allan sings, "I ain't really happy until the sky starts driving rain."
Allan's eighth studio album is the rocked-out country confession of a smart guy drawn to what the rest of the world calls wrong roads and long shots.
"Get Off On the Pain" shows no signs of musical fatigue. Songs like the atmospheric "We Fly by Night," the indestructible title track, and the dramatically cascading, deliberate "I Think I Had Enough" consolidate the strengths of previous Allan music — from the Orbison-esque elegance of "Smoke Rings in the Dark" (1999) and brute power of "Man to Man" (2001), to the smarts of "Watching Airplanes" (2007).
This is country music from a guy who can sing the wry, despondent "Kiss Me When I'm Down," incorporating elements of rock chamber-pop, along with the rollicking "That Ain't Gonna Fly," with choruses that tap rich harmonic fundamentals of gospel music into pop.
Whatever the style, these songs proceed with confidence.
"They're more focused," Allan said in a news release.
"Everybody just knows more of what we're going for now, because I always use the same players in the studio; I've done that since day one. This is nine records, counting our "Greatest Hits" album, we've made together. So I think everybody just knows what I want. It's just a lot easier. I've sat down and played those guys things on my guitar, trying to show what I wanted. I think just with time you just get better with it."