The thinking woman’s ‘bit of alright’, Chris Isaak has charmed and beguiled many across the world with his music for almost 30 years now. Inspired by early pioneers of rock and roll like Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, and Jerry Lee Lewis, the man and his five-piece band put on an excellent show at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.
Before the headline act took the stage, several female fans could be overheard expressing their admiration and love for the man; some describing in rather frightening detail the things they would do to Isaak if they got him alone. He clearly still has a primal appeal for certain sections of his audience.
Arriving onstage in a striking black sequin suit, Isaak and his band proceeded to hit their straps fast. Less a band and more a bunch of old friends united by a love of music, there was a palpable connection and camaraderie between Isaak and his band members. It was incredibly charming and something not easily faked.
Early tracks from Isaak’s career like “Blue Hotel” and “Dancin’” benefited from the live arena, being stripped of the recorded sound that carbon dated these tracks to their origins in the late ‘80s.
Still smoky and atmospheric after all these years, “Wicked Game” was a standout. Brilliantly used by David Lynch – a director with a truly uncanny ear for musical/visual counterpoint – in the film Wild At Heart, this is the song that really brought Isaak to the attention of the world in general.
“Baby Did A Bad, Bad Thing”, so very cheeky and suggestive in its nature and tone, came up an absolute treat. One could almost picture a young Elvis Presley really ripping it up on this song. By this point wolf whistles and catcalls were plentiful, the crowd only having just recovered from Isaak taking a stroll through the audience while singing.
Isaak was in town to promote his latest release, Beyond The Sun, a collection of early rock and roll standards that the band recorded at the legendary Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. These were the songs that Isaak loved as a child via his parents’ record collection, and they sat well alongside his original material.
The new album features some really fine choices, such as “Oh, Pretty Woman”, “Great Balls Of Fire!”, “I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You” and the cheeky “Dixie Fried”, all of which got an airing to an ecstatic crowd.
It was a fun and hugely enjoyable night. In an age when any guy with a laptop can be a ‘musician’, it’s refreshing and satisfying to know that an audience still exists for music with soul and feel to it.
