The man, the band

Paul Saitowitz

Who needs a full band to rock these days? The White Stripes, the

Ravonettes, Mr. Airplaneman and the Black Keys have helped make bass

players a thing of the past, and Lightning Bolt has rendered the

guitarist obsolete.

All you really need is a motorcycle helmet, a monkey paw, two

working legs and plenty of attitude. At least that’s all the

ubiquitous Bob Log III needs. The Tucson-based one-man blues band has

traveled the world over several times, and this Thursday he’ll make a

stop at Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa.

According to legend, when Log was a child he lost his left hand in

a boating accident. It was soon replaced with a monkey paw, and a new

guitar style was born.

“It’s my own personal style, see,” Log said. “The paw moves much

quicker than a normal hand, so my real hand has to flop around a lot

to compensate.”

Whether the alleged paw exists, the sounds the mysterious Log

wrangles out of his guitar hit like a hypnotizing hurricane coming

straight out of the north Mississippi hill country, mixed with the

groove-driven garage blues coming out of Detroit these days. Some of

the riffs -- played on a severely down-tuned ax -- are so jangly and

awkward that they inspire hints of baroque music. The up-tempo beats

-- not just kick-snare, kick-snare -- he puts behind those guitar

lines are a lot more busy than you would expect from just one guy.

And then there’s the motorcycle helmet. Log never reveals his

identity, instead choosing to wear a helmet with a microphone in it,

which makes his already rough vocals sound like they’re being sung

through a megaphone. When asked about the unruly headpiece, Log

replies “What helmet?”

That’s what makes this man, whoever he is, the real deal. This

Evel Knievel-looking troubadour encompasses the mystery and

rabble-rousery that makes blues-based rock ‘n’ roll dangerous. With

two of his more tame song titles being “Drunk Stripper” and “Six

String Kicker,” Log sings about all the things he should be singing

about: whiskey, women and fighting.

He has garnered quite a following, including spooky musical

vagabond Tom Waits, who said of Log: “He wears a motorcycle helmet

and he has a microphone inside of it and he puts the glass over the

front so you can’t see his face, and plays slide guitar. It’s just

the loudest strangest stuff you’ve ever heard.”

With three albums -- recorded on primitive four-track and

eight-track equipment -- on Oxford, Mississippi’s venerable Fat

Possum Records (R.L. Burnside, T-Model Ford, Paul “Wine” Jones) Log

is part of a dying breed. A road-weary bluesman, who is by no means a

guitar virtuoso -- like Robert Cray and Robben Ford -- but rather a

nasty, dirty, soul-fueled crooner who feels every note. According to

Log, blues is “bent, bending hard, blues is a feeling.”

Catch him on Thursday to see what the feeling is all about.