Chris Isaak Concert Review and Tickets

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Roy Orbison cast a long, deep and blue shadow during his decades as the king of dramatic, hypnotic, near-operatic heartbreak.

Since his death, Orbison’s shade has only deepened in hue. One can hear echoes of his work in unlikely places – Bruce Springsteen’s mid-’70s work, and, vocals aside, much of Bob Dylan’s early-’70s library. More recently, epic purveyors of the high-lonesome, like Britain’s Richard Hawley, have tapped into Orbison’s exquisite pain.

But no artist has so fully embodied Orbison’s work, and carried it on for subsequent generations, than Chris Isaak. With his heart-rending falsetto, his crisp, cool and affable demeanor, his ability to exhume and examine the September of romantic love’s years, and his stellar band of musicians able to draw from country, folk, pop, rock & roll, romantic balladry and surf music with equal aplomb, Isaak is Orbison’s legitimate heir. On Saturday, Isaak and his longtime band, Silvertone, kicked off a two-night stand inside the Niagara Fallsview Casino & Resort’s Avalon Ballroom with an impeccable show, drawing from throughout his recorded canon. Never has having your heart broken by a song been more pleasurable.

Isaak is on tour in support of a recently released greatest hits record, and thus, much of Saturday’s show comprised hits and perennial fan favorites. In this instance, that’s nothing but a good thing; Isaak is at heart a pop songwriter, though he recalls a golden age of pop and rock, when a three-minute song packed all the necessary information into a tight format. Isaak can write a hook like few others, and so, hearing his “greatest hits” is far from painful, nor does it appear contrived or an attempt to pander to fans. Dressed resplendently – like a particularly hip Vegas singer, his trademark coiffure in awesome shape, and his gorgeous Gibson ES-335 guitar wearing him well – Isaak summoned Orbison, Gene Vincent, Carl Perkins and Ricky Nelson with his dreaminess and sense of heartbreak’s hypnotic effects. But he has added enough of his own idiosyncracies to the mix to make it his own.

Isaak emerged looking like young Elvis, and his moves mixed the King’s hip-swivel with his own brand of good-natured irony. Early on, Isaak and his cordless ran at full-tilt off the stage and ended up in the balcony, sitting on one female fan’s lap, before leaping up to offer some face time to folks on the lower level. It was charming, and helped Isaak earn the crowd’s full attention, which he clung to for the remainder of his two-hour-plus set.

Opening with the raucous, Johnny Cash-circa Sun Records rocker, “Lonely With a Broken Heart,” Isaak and his killer band – guitarist supreme Herschell Yatovitz, drummer Kenny Dale Johnson and bassist Rowland Salley, as well as an auxiliary keyboardist and percussionist – Isaak ran through the double entendre-laced “Let’s Have a Party,” and then segued into a gorgeous “Let Me Down Easy,” an able showcase for the singer’s searing yodel.

“Speak of the Devil” was snarling rockabilly, while “Dancin’ ” again showcased Isaak’s ability to whistle past the graveyard, finding humor in heartbreak. “Somebody’s Crying” is one of Isaak’s finest songs, and Yatovitz made it sparkle. Chris Isaak puts on one helluva show.

September 2006

5 – New Orleans, LA – House of Blues – New Orleans
7 – Houston, TX – Verizon Wireless Theatre – TX
8 – Austin, TX – The Backyard
9 – Fort Worth, TX – Billy Bobs

Jeff Miers/Buffalo News

P. S. Check out Chris Isaak tickets here.