Retro Rocker Chris Issak's Act On Fire

Rocky Mountain News
By Michael Mehle, News, Popular Music Writer
December 6, 1998

Chris Isaak warned a sold-out audience at the Paramount Theatre on Friday that he was liable to abandon any highbrow intentions and drag the show "down into the gutter."

The retro crooner never sank that low, but neophyte fans expecting the singer to whisper sweet-nothing ballads all evening got much more than they bargained for. A rarity in rock 'n' roll these days, Isaak goes out of his way to put on an entertaining show, even if it has to get ugly or over-the-top.

"Look beyond the sequins, man," he jokingly pleaded at one point.

Actually, his sequined purple outfit was the more subdued of the two suits he donned Friday night. Late in the show, he came out wearing a mirror-ball ensemble, a reflective suit that sprayed rays of light across the crowd. That's what he was wearing as he ran up the aisle, into the lobby and up to the balcony, guitar in hand.

Stunts like that are routine in his repertoire. So are songs that have hints of Orbison, Presley and Holly and stories of romantic desperation that seem so out-of-place coming out of his GQ-kind of face.

He began the 90-minute concert in high gear, charging through the playful I'm Not Sleepy, the twangy surf sound of Speak of the Devil, the hushed, dreamy passages of Flying and the Orbison-like melodies of Somebody's Crying within the first 20 minutes. From above, prisms of light shifted between the singer and his Silvertone band mates on a beautiful clublike stage. The platform was often bathed in smoky blue and red light to match the mood of his music.

The crowd was reverential through the start and up until his 1991 hit Wicked Game, in which his lonely voice rang out clear and high like a train whistle in the distance. Then the singer and his crack band picked up the pace, and the rush for the stage was on.

As for his gutter humor, Isaak kept it rated PG-13, but with a few humorous glimpses into his relationship woes. Before Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing, he shared a lover's fantasy of setting a paramour on fire. "I haven't had that feeling myself," he said. "But I've had that feeling described to me by my ex-girlfriend."

Isaak and his act were on fire for the raucous Diddley Daddy and a subdued encore that included a cover of Orbison's Only the Lonely. And if that's Isaak's idea of lowbrow entertainment, the gutter's a great place to spend the evening.

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