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Isaak woos crowd with his Wicked Ways
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By
The Minx, EntertainmentEditor
Friday,
27 April, 2007
I am a big Chris Isaak fan and when I heard Chris was touring Europe in April and playing a gig in London, at the Hammersmith Apollo, naturally I had to go. I took my son, 25 and also an Isaak fan. The audience reflected a similar generational age range.
We had a GRR-RR –eat night. What a showman. What an entertainer the guy is. The set was simple but with lots of lighting changes. The sound was excellent. The show started on time. Chris rushed on stage, very energetic in a bright pink suit.
For 50 he is very well preserved and having a good head of thick dark hair helps. He has a good body too. His voice was great too, he can still hit all those high notes. What is it a 3 octave range – maybe more? His band, Silvertone, were all present too including his long time best mate and sidekick, drummer Kenny Dale Johnson. They have been with him for over 20 years now and were all smartly dressed in their customary matching black western style suits with silver trim.
After the first number Lonely with a Broken Heart Chris told us it had been 12 years since his last visit, (1995 when he played the Shepherds Bush Empire?). During Return to Me he asked for the house lights to be put up to see “who we had back there!” and then, accompanied by his keyboard player Scotty on the accordian, and holding a hand mike, he jumped off the stage and ran into the audience, running up and down the aisles serenading the women and even running up onto the balcony and singing to the house from there. The audience went wild and he had them eating out of his hand after that.
He made it back to the stage with the white haired Scotty running to catch up. The sublime Speak of the Devil was next, and then came Wicked Game. He sang a good number of his hits and chatted to the audience and pretended to flirt with some of the women. Chris is still single after a series of failed romances and there were lots of jokey references to available places on his tour bus.
Throughout there were no restrictions on photography or video cameras indeed he encouraged it. He teased the band members and from time to time they all performed little “Shadows” style dance routines guitars held aloft, up and down the stage.
At one stage the house lights went down and Chris and three of the band all came and sat together on stools at the front of the stage and played a medley of his hits and even took a couple of requests. You could see how close they were and it was very touching. Then he got everyone in the audience up to their feet to dance. When he made a comment about them being so far off the set list, a heckler shouted out for “Dancin’”. Chris shot back “What do you think this is a bar, this is a sophisticated venue, I’ve got a pink suit for crying out loud!” and launched straight into Dancin’ – one of my favourites.
Chris returned for the encore in his famous mirrored suit and the roadies led a dozen attractive young women, obviously hand picked, onto the stage to dance with the band. Chris picked out Robyn to flirt with and I know it wasn't a put up job because she left the theatre just behind me and I talked to her. She said she was so excited when he asked her what she did for a job she could hardly reply
The most surprising thing was the age of the audience. At Dwight Yoakam's show in London last year the average age was over 50 maybe 55 even while at Chris's show (and Chris is the same age as Dwight and has been round just as long) I would have said it was 35-40 with older people but also a much higher percentage of young women.
Too soon a set of nearly 2 hours, too soon it was over. By the time I got out to the front of the house, Chris was already out front signing merchandise. There were massive queues, and everything was all sold out so I couldn't buy anything. Shame because I had my eye on a nice mug. I got to see him very close though and he still looked good if a bit tired. He was signing everything except tickets and thanking everyone for attending. He looked pale but in good spirits and was even better looking close up. The famous hairdo was still intact.
Chris is touring with Silvertone and Stevie Nicks in the states this summer and on his web site it says he will be singing for at least an hour at the shows and signing merchandise so I really recommend you go if you get the chance.
Oh and on the official website under Journal, Kenney his drummer is writing a blog which includes the tour and is very interesting. Check it out on www.chrisisaak.com
OntheLam 2007
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