After leading magnificent Californian psych-rockers Comets On Fire through a decade of uncompromising, speaker-busting cacophony, singer/guitarist Ethan Miller started to display a more melodic tendency with the inception of his Howlin' Rain side project. Their 2006 debut album was a rollicking, classic-rock delight in the Creedence/Skynyrd mould, packed with southern-boogie verve and big choruses. With Comets On Fire now on hiatus, and golden-touch producer Rick Rubin signing Howlin' Rain's second album, it seems like a side project no more.

Looking as scruffy as any retro rock-inclined band worth their salt should, Howlin' Rain have expanded their lineup to five for this first overseas tour, and it was clear Miller has lost no enthusiasm for volume. Bursting off with new songs, the sound is as blusterous as the name implies. Indeed, rather more so than on record - though it never reaches the Comets' deafening squall, it is not far off, and that threatens to bury Miller's melodic sensibility. His singing is tremendous, a soulful, yelling croon, and songs such as Roll On the Rusted Days retain a great deal of that careering joy. But, if anything, there seems less rolling back than you might expect from Comets On Fire's scorched-earth approach.

And that is no bad thing - seeing these guys shake their way through another squealing solo, you would be hard pressed to begrudge them for attacking their material with such gleeful force, and it ranks with the best of today's noisy rock. But there is a feeling that letting those tunes shine through more might make Howlin' Rain even better, and win them a whole lot of new fans.

· At the Mono, Glasgow (0141-553 2400), tonight.