Got to Amoeba Monday night to see Chris Isaak do an in-store appearance. I've always wanted to see him in person, so this was a treat. The place was relatively packed, I'd say maybe 250 people there, spread out amongst the aisles.
good times!
He played his vintage Silvertone guitar and used a Silvertone amp (which shorted out a couple times, and Amoeba had a standby amp ready just in case.) Kenny used only a hand held snare and one brush, and provided nice backup singing and snarky quips. It was like being on the set of the Chris Isaak Show. He played a few songs from his new record, which seemed pretty good, but then again he doesn't necessarily stray too far from the Chris Isaak Formula.
He played Wicked Game, which missed the twangy lead guitar and the ethereal production you hear on record, and combine that with a few "whoops!" from the audience, and I realized how awesome that recording is. He also rushed it and broke character a bit during the song -- which was a little disappointing -- like when the long held high note at the end was coming, he asked Kenny "Are we ready for this?" and Kenny said " Go for it!" Then again, when you've played that song LITERALLY thousands of times, you can expect a little variation and fun. He covered Roy Orbison's "Only The Lonely" whichis a perfect fit for him, and even did a couple verses and chorus of Elvis' "Old Shep" -- an EARLY EP song about a dog -- which was prompted by the presence of a fluffy lapdog held by some soccer mom in the audience. There was lots of goofy banter with the audience, the guy's so likeable -- and he hit all the high notes. Men want to be him, women want to be with him -- and some men, too.
it was great! I didn't buy the CD or stick around to see him do any signings-- he seemed to be taking a LONG time to come back out from the Green Room. Perhaps he was back there getting re-energized? Perhaps he keeps up that nice boy energy by doing some RedBull .. or maybe something more powerful?
I keeed, I keeed!
Instead I went over to the Bargain Bin and got my hands on a $1.99 copy of Frampton Comes Alive, but I put it back, saying "forgive me Bob Mayo, but I can download this."
