Live: Pearl

HOUSE OF BLUES — 8/28/2010: It must be tough to be the offspring of a famous person and then attempt to follow them in the same vocation. The road to success is lettered with the bodies of David Flair, Pete Rose, Jr., Cameron Douglas, and John Henry Williams; just some of the landmarks on that highway of failure.

Not to be deterred (detoured?), Pearl Aday, daughter of Meat Loaf, has embarked on her own career as a singer. With the release of her self-titled debut CD, she took the stage at the House of Blues as the opening act for her father. This is not just some vanity attempt at fame, mind you — Pearl has been honing her craft for years. Besides singing in her band at countless shows on the West Coast, she’s also toured as a back-up singer for Mötley Crüe, so she’s not another Kelly Osbourne cashing in on a parent’s hard work.

Pearl led her five-piece band Saturday night through a rocking 40-minute set. Pearl has a really nice voice that shows tons of power, and she does a great job in not letting it overstage the songs. The band’s music is a fusion of blues and hard rock that works really well live, too. It was somewhat of a shock to see the giant goateeed metal god Scott Ian of Anthrax — also Pearl’s husband — cranking it out without going into his customary spinning mini-mosh.

To dwell on Scott alone would be a disservice to the band, however, as they all put on a great performance. Besides Ian, the rest of the band is made up of members of Mother Superior, a L.A. band who’ve worked with Henry Rollins and Emmylou Harris. They played selections from their debut album, including a terrific cover of Tina Turner’s “Nutbush City Limits” and the appropriately titled “Rock Child,”

The two songs that stood out to me were “Mama,” a blues-drenched almost-ballad that built up to a rocking climax, and “Nobody,” a terrific song that really showcased Pearl’s ability to add emotion into her singing. About the only bad thing you could say about the show was that the ill-advised ballad at the end of the set just took the energy out of the room. Pearl went from having everyone in the House of Blues in the palm of her hands to checking their iPhones.