Los Angeles: Robin Trower's ascent to stardom can be directly related to the void left by the demise of powertrios. His sheer volume and primal attack can be linked to Hendrix and Cream.
At Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium, a sold out throng proved receptive to all of Robin's variations on a theme. His songs have an alarming sameness about them, testifying to the authors penchant for heavy metal licks.
 And while Jim Dewar's vocals were totally obscured by the horrendous sound system, and Bill Lordan's perfunctory drumming and obligatory (but thankfully) shortsolo plodded along, Robin played on, stunning the crowd with his feedback manipulation.
 Selections from his albums comprised the repertoire, although i, it was nearly impossible to disern one song from the next, so similar is the phrasing and melody of each. By far the best was from the first LP. Here, Robin showed a more subtle approach, allowing the content of the song to sustain the energy rather than let his wall of Marshalls do the work for him.
 These obvious shortcomings were not so obvious to the crowd. Thunderous ovations greeted each tune and there were three encores.