SLCene Suggests: Tommy Castro and the Painkillers at Park City’s Egyptian Theatre

TOMMY CASTRO AND THE PAINKILLERS, EGYPTIAN THEATRE, Sun., Dec. 21-Tues., Dec. 23, 8 p.m., $28

Singer/guitarist Tommy Castro made his bones in blues circles via a horn-driven sound, but a few years back he decided to strip the band down to a tight, aggressive quartet. The Painkillers bring some added aggression to Castro’s tunes, but they remain rooted in straightforward blue-rock and R&B. The band’s latest release is The Devil You Know, and Castro said upon release that the leaner, meaner band is a return to when he started in music. “The Painkillers really get me back to my roots,” he says. “It feels to me a lot more like it did when I first started playing with my friends as a kid. Bands were always just three or four guys playing for the fun of it.” indeed, and Castro and his band will undoubtedly make a lot of other folks have a lot of fun with their three-night stand in Park City.