In concert: Shooter Jennings at State Theatre

Shooter Jennings did his bloodline proud at State Theatre, Sunday night. (All photos by Evy Mages/FTWP)

By Dave McKenna

Shooter Jennings still has folks coming to his shows thinking they'll hear the sort of country music his father Waylon made famous. You could spot them easily enough at the State Theatre on Sunday night: They were the ones who left early.

The 31-year-old Shooter surely owes some portion of his attitude and looks and launchability of career to daddy - but not his sound. Jennings treated those who stuck around to a nearly 90-minute set full of arrangements that were heavy on the heavy. Jennings and Hierophant, his current combo, reveled in vintage guitars theatrics, churchy keyboards and dirtball coifs that look modeled after Creem magazine covers from the '70s.

"Don't Feed the Animals" featured a Led Zeppelin-esque riff and found Jennings singing into an alternate megaphone-like microphone a la fellow retro traveler Jack White. "Breaking Point" would please fans of later-model Southern Rock, like that rasped by the Black Crowes. "Southern Comfort" recalled the '70s output of another B.C. band: Bad Company. "Manifesto No. 1" had hints of the bluesy, piano-based country rock of Leon Russell during his heyday. Jennings stayed behind the electric piano for the Allman Brothers-meets-Coldplay of "All of This Could Have Been Yours." With the glorious "4th of July," a tune off his 2005 debut, Jennings showed he could write a pop rock song as catchy and thrilling and downright American as Bruce Springsteen or John Mellencamp.

Toward the end of the set, Jennings announced he'd do one for "all the Waylon fans," then delivered his take on the country classic "Rainy Day Women." But, to borrow some words from one of his dad's other big titles, Waylon didn't do it this way. He would've loved it, though.