Eight Gigs: Tommy Castro and the Painkillers

After a couple of decades and 16 albums, you could say that Bay Area guitarist and singer Tommy Castro knows a thing or two about the blues. Fresh off the release of his latest album, Method to my Madness, Castro's four-piece band riffs on classic blues rock in the vein of Creedence Clearwater Revival, B.B. King and ZZ Top. Despite going for a more stripped-down, raw sound in recent years, the newer stuff sounds pretty similar to the older stuff, which isn't a bad thing: There's no fixing what isn't broken, and Castro's music continues to be as down-home and comfortingly familiar as ever. 2708 J Street, http://tommycastro.com.