Chris Isaak charms with sweet tunes, sly sense of humor

Idaho Statesman Newspaper
12-8-98
By: Marianne Flagg

Chris Isaak is a throwback to the early rock era, when stars sported glittery suits, swept-back hair and stripped-down playing that relied more on style than smoke.

Charming a crowd of about 2,800 in the Bank of America Centre on Monday night, Isaak had sequined suits and sex appeal to spare.

Lord knows he has the voice, a plush croon that sails into ethereal falsetto. But Isaak also possesses a sly humor and contemporary take on old-fashioned rock that make him a unique character. Positively glaring in a sequined purple suit, Isaak and his tight four-piece band Silvertone powered through five songs from his new recording, "Speak of the Devil," a song cycle with greater guitar muscle than on previous CDs. By the third song, the single "Please," Isaak was beginning to melt the reticence of an appreciative but mellow crowd.

Isaak told the audience in his deadpan way--the man is a movie actor, too--that his bass player told him what to expect in Boise. "They're highbrow, but they love to be led to the gutter." Isaak is too classy to really get in the gutter, but the slightly twisted, funny stories he told between songs scuffed some shoes. None of the funny business distracted from his music, which sounded smooth and effortless.

As always at his concerts, "Wicked Game" drew huge applause at its first wistful guitar strains. Few modern male rock singers have voices that so embody lost love. After "Wicked Game," he invited the crowd to come to the front and "get it on," where they stayed bouncing for the rest of the show.

Isaak paced the concert well, placing ballads like rest stops between locomotive rockers such as "Diddley Daddy" and "Speak of the Devil."

His opening act, the singer-songwriter Jude, might have reminded Isaak of himself in his greener days. A good singer with a flair for rapid word play, Jude shows potential in his quirky acoustic songs. But his lyrics are hampered by monotonous accompaniment that only occasionally is relieved by a melody. He might look to Isaak for some inspiration. A pretty voice is only really pretty when it has something lovely to sing.

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