Boston Review

by Kowloon8

I was hanging out with a bunch of friends, we were about to watch a video, when a good friend of mine says, "Well, I'm gonna go. I want to see if I can get tickets for the Chris Isaak concert tonight". "Chris Isaak? He's dreamy", I said, having only seen the Wicked Game video, and seen him perform a song I liked on the Tonight Show (I later found out it was Somebody's Crying). I was in the mood for adventure, so I said, "Hey, I'll come with you".

We went to the Orpheum, walked up to the box office, and asked if there were still any tickets for sale. There were, "In the balcony?" "No, the orchestra." We thought we were lucky, we didn't know just how lucky. Thinking it was probably restricted view, we went in, and handed our tickets to the usher. "The best seats in the house! I was saving them for you." "Yeah, right", we said. "No, seriously, these are great seats." "But we just bought them, just now." He explained that they might have been reserved for someone, like press, who never showed up, and led us to our seats. WOW! There is an aisle that runs right down the middle of the first fifteen or so rows of seats, and then solid rows going back through the rest of the house. Our seats were the two dead-center in the first row after the the aisle ended. We had nothing but empty space running between us, and Chris' mike. We were so happy. We started to chat with the guys who worked there about this and that. They explained that they would have to walk in front of us to seat people during Shawn Mullins, no biggee. Right before Shawn took the stage, one of the guys says, "Follow me", and takes us down to the second row, center. "THANKS!", we said, we couldn't believe it! We watched Shawn (who I'd never heard of), I enjoyed some song called something like "Clarisse, why do you have to be in the Klan?". When Shawn was done, the guy who'd led us there told us we had to go back to our seats, but it was nice of him to put us there for Shawn, and we were more than happy with our original seats.

When Chris (wearing a fuschia suit with a strange lustre) and Silvertone took the stage, I was surprised. I had absolutely no idea what to expect. They started to play, and it was great. I just started to dance in my seat, automatically. Song after song went on, and they were fantastic! Then people started to rush the stage, and we couldn't figure out what was going on (I know now). We stayed in our seats, but stood up and danced. When Chris started telling his stories (the usuals), I just about died, I had no idea there was going to be so much comedy. During Forever Blue, the audience went quiet. Chris stood center stage, with beautiful lighting that seemed to isolate him (I think there was also a disco ball slowly rotating). It felt like the last dance at a 50s prom, it was so simple and sweet, and his voice was so clear, and separate from the instruments. It was magical. Then, like that, they went back to rockin'. Every song they played was wonderful.

I LOVED the mirrored suit, I'd never heard ANYTHING about that. That's something I would wear every day of my life, if I could (but that's probably impractical). Ooh, the glitz and the glamour! I thought it was funny how, when he took off the jacket, he was even wearing a shirt covered in black sequins.

Near the end of the show, Chris jumped off the stage, and started running right up the aisle. I sat there with, I'm sure, the stupidist, most incredulous look known to man or beast plastered across my face. I had never had an entertainer just jump off the stage and come running at me, plus, it didn't seem like real life, because he was silhouetted, and I couldn't really see a thing. I didn't know what to do. Jump up and dance? I had been concerned all night about blocking people behind me and forcing everyone in back to stand. I was reticent and shocked, so I just sat there. He runs up to where the front seating stops, like three feet away, pauses, and then turns around and starts playing back to the stage. Then he ran back. He went up to the balcony as well. There was so much energy by the end of the show, with all those happy ladies dancing, and doing a great job of it, on the stage. And the entire audience dancing, too.

Then, at the end, Chris announced he would be signing autographs in the lobby. We were like, "NO WAY!", it was all so much. We went out, and it was a real big crowd, and a production line, and Chris going up and down the line, signing like crazy. We just got him to sign our tickets, because we were unprepared for that kind of thing.

We went home SO happy. That's the great thing about setting off on an adventure, sometimes you get all these happy surprises.

The next day I bought every CD except Baja Sessions. All my friends were like, "Isn't that a little excessive?" I told them I was just making up for lost time. Later that week, after loving EVERY song on ALL the CDs, I went ahead and bought Baja.

Now as I walk around with my CD player, people are like, "What are you listening to?" It's always Chris. And when I tell them that, there are only ever two conversations:
"You like Chris Isaak?"
"Yeah", I say, "I like Chris Isaak. He's great."
"I know. Why doesn't everybody know about him?"
"Beats me.... Hard to classify?"
or
"You like Chris Isaak?" (I don't know why that part's so hard to believe.)
"Yeah", I say, "I like Chris Isaak. He's great."
"He's HOT! That Wicked Game video... he looks great in a wife-beater. Wow!"
"I know, but you should really check out his music too. You won't be sorry."

I know I wasn't.

~ Kowloon

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