By Brian Heater

Two Gallants follow, in the proud tradition of Creedence Clearwater Revival, a band from the San Francisco Bay Area that seems more like the bayou-born product of the Deep South than the South Bay. While John Fogerty and company always seemed content to limit discussion of the Southern side of the Mason-Dixon to the sounds of “that old hound dog barkin’,” Gallants songs crackle with ancestral white guilt not heard since our favorite southern Canadian expat, Neil Young, came down hard on the “Southern Man.” 

Take for example “Long Summer Day,” from the band’s second brilliant LP, What the Toll Tells. Gallants frontman Adam Stephens gravelly bleats, “‘Sir, I believe I’ve got the right’ he said. ‘You ain’t got nothing, if you ain’t white.’” The song “Throes,” off the band’s debut of the same name, takes a similar, if slightly removed (third person) approach to spousal abuse, which of course isn’t to suggest that Two Gallants are primarily concerned with preaching these hard-fought tenets of equality to what is almost certainly a liberal-leaning audience. 

Two Gallants’ approach to music making is about as lean as a group can get and still be considered a band: two guys, a drum kit, a guitar, a harmonica and shouts. It’s a stark and rootsy contrast in a time when the band’s indie rock peers are packing members onto tiny backroom stages in numbers not seen since the last ska revival.

It’s a welcome change, similar (perhaps) to what we experienced briefly with the debut of the White Stripes—before Jack White became the immaculate conception of some Victorian-era pirate. Two Gallants play with a shit kicking snarl and twang, heavy on the snare and the hard-blown harmonica of Woody Guthrie or early Dylan tracks; the shout-alongs, border on the shanties of The Pogues. It’s rootsy and bluesy, sure, but deep down the rusted strings twang with the immediacy that once defined rock ’n’ roll.

Oct. 8. Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St. (betw. Bowery & Chrystie Sts.), 212-533-2111; 7:30, $15.