Tonite I saw Rockabilly singer Chris Isaak in concert and what a pleasurable surprise he was to see. Let me preface my review by saying Chris was not on my wife's and my must see list. A very close and dear friend of ours is a big fan of his and was originally supposed to see him with two of his friends, but when they cancelled out we thought it would be a nice gesture to treat him for our Christmas gift to him, especially since he was recently unemployed. He couldn't thank us enough and we all enjoyed the show. I could have enjoyed it more had I not been battling this head and chest cold.
Chris has been around for 25 years now starting in 1984 and has been with the same band for those 25 years which is always a good sign. His style is more of a rockabilly and rock n roll sound and he credits his chief influences as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison. He did mini tributes to each of them also.
Chris Isaak was born in Stockton,Calif. the son of Dorothy,a potato chip factory worker and Joe Isaak a forklift operator. He has two older brothers Nicky and Jeff and had his own talk show on TV the Chris Isaak show from 2001-2004 and the Chris Isaak Hour on Biography from 2009 to the present. He's also made many guest appearances on various TV shows .
In Thursday night's concert he showed that he and his bandmates have lots of fun together as they did various dance routines while playing their guitars and joking with one another. Chris even takes his show into the audience and even up in the balcony where we were. At one point he started out doing Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire" and for some reason the keyboard player was out of tune so Chris stopped in the middle and went straight into a lovely rendition of Elvis' hit song "It's Now or Never."
Beings it's the Christmas season Chris also did a few Christmas songs for us. One was called "Merry Christmas from a Million Miles Away" I was thinking it was going to be about a soldier writing home at Christmas, but as Chris explained after the song, it was a guy watching his ex girlfriend with a new guy in the house he used to be in with her at Christmas time. I didn't realize it was about that until Chris mentioned it at the end. He admitted it was a bitter song, but the tune is so catchy and toe tapping you don't get that feeling. Chris mentioned that everyone watches Jimmy Stewart in" It's A Wonderful Life" at this time of year so he had a verse in there that says "Jimmy Stewart is with his friends/Bells are ringing/it's near the end." He also did a happier original Christmas song and a great rendition of "Rudolph."
Chris and his band did great tributes to Elvis with such songs as "Got to Get to You","Please Love Me" and "She's Not You" as well as the afore -mentioned "It's Now or Never". They also did Roy Orbison's" Pretty Woman" and another try at Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire." This time getting it right. Not to be outdone they did James Brown's "I'll Go Crazy."
Most bands I've seen do about two or three encores. Not with these guys though. We counted at least ten songs for an encore. Chris said they had a new album coming out and were just throwing things together and if you've never been to a jam session, this is what it's like.
It was such a pleasure to see that there are still singers who put on a good clean show without all the noise, obscenities and controversey. Chris Isaak is that kind of act. If you are into rockabilly music and good rock'n'roll then try to catch him if he comes to a hall near you.
Chris Isaak - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chris Isaak
Chris has been around for 25 years now starting in 1984 and has been with the same band for those 25 years which is always a good sign. His style is more of a rockabilly and rock n roll sound and he credits his chief influences as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison. He did mini tributes to each of them also.
Chris Isaak was born in Stockton,Calif. the son of Dorothy,a potato chip factory worker and Joe Isaak a forklift operator. He has two older brothers Nicky and Jeff and had his own talk show on TV the Chris Isaak show from 2001-2004 and the Chris Isaak Hour on Biography from 2009 to the present. He's also made many guest appearances on various TV shows .
In Thursday night's concert he showed that he and his bandmates have lots of fun together as they did various dance routines while playing their guitars and joking with one another. Chris even takes his show into the audience and even up in the balcony where we were. At one point he started out doing Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire" and for some reason the keyboard player was out of tune so Chris stopped in the middle and went straight into a lovely rendition of Elvis' hit song "It's Now or Never."
Beings it's the Christmas season Chris also did a few Christmas songs for us. One was called "Merry Christmas from a Million Miles Away" I was thinking it was going to be about a soldier writing home at Christmas, but as Chris explained after the song, it was a guy watching his ex girlfriend with a new guy in the house he used to be in with her at Christmas time. I didn't realize it was about that until Chris mentioned it at the end. He admitted it was a bitter song, but the tune is so catchy and toe tapping you don't get that feeling. Chris mentioned that everyone watches Jimmy Stewart in" It's A Wonderful Life" at this time of year so he had a verse in there that says "Jimmy Stewart is with his friends/Bells are ringing/it's near the end." He also did a happier original Christmas song and a great rendition of "Rudolph."
Chris and his band did great tributes to Elvis with such songs as "Got to Get to You","Please Love Me" and "She's Not You" as well as the afore -mentioned "It's Now or Never". They also did Roy Orbison's" Pretty Woman" and another try at Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire." This time getting it right. Not to be outdone they did James Brown's "I'll Go Crazy."
Most bands I've seen do about two or three encores. Not with these guys though. We counted at least ten songs for an encore. Chris said they had a new album coming out and were just throwing things together and if you've never been to a jam session, this is what it's like.
It was such a pleasure to see that there are still singers who put on a good clean show without all the noise, obscenities and controversey. Chris Isaak is that kind of act. If you are into rockabilly music and good rock'n'roll then try to catch him if he comes to a hall near you.
Chris Isaak - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chris Isaak
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