Chris Isaak knows how to throw one mean holiday extravaganza.
Seriously–just look at that jacket he’s wearing, part of a stylish Christmas-themed Nudie suit Isaak sported at his excellent Kingsbury Hall throwdown Wednesday night. As Isaak noted, though–in the first of many between-song asides after he and his crack band opened the show with “American Boy” and “Blue Hotel”–“We’re going to do some Christmas songs, but it’s going to be a rock ‘n’ roll show.”
That it was, led by a consummate frontman in Isaak, and aided greatly by his longtime band of sidemen/comic foils. Even the Christmas tunes took on a rock vibe, starting with his version of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” early in the show. Throughout the night, Isaak would drop a holiday tune into the set here and there, never letting the energy slow or the carols to dominate too much.
That proved a solid strategy, because Isaak’s own tunes, and his well-chosen covers, deserve the spotlight almost as much as Isaak’s stunning suit. “Want Your Love” and “San Francisco Days” were both early highlights of the show, and made for a fine segue into a mini-set of holiday originals like “Washington Square” and “Christmas on TV,” and covers of an Elvis-style “Blue Christmas” and the gospel-tinged “Last Month of the Year.”
Besides his sense of humor, Isaak’s calling card is a voice that is incredibly strong whether he’s crooning ala Roy Orbison or growling like The King. “Somebody’s Crying” and “Wicked Game” both showcased his pipes well.
The second half of the show was dominated by an excursion into Isaak’s 2011 Sun Records tribute album, Beyond The Sun. The stage set turned into a replica of the tiny Memphis studio where Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis all got their starts in music, and Isaak and his band did killer takes of songs like Cash’s “Ring of Fire,” Carl Perkins’ “Dixie Fried” and Elvis’s “It’s Now or Never” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”
Throughout the show, Isaak’s band was incredibly tight, something that comes when you play with the same guys for 27 years, as Isaak noted. Guitarist Hershel Yatovitz joined Isaak in making excursions off the stage and into the audience. Bass player Rowland Salley was a hyperactive presence all night, and drummer Kenny Dale Johnson provided rock-solid beats, harmony vocals and one-liners–whatever Isaak and the songs needed.
For the encore, Isaak broke out his mirrorball suit for songs including a fine cover of Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman.” It was a perfect capper on a damn near perfect night of entertainment. Between the music, the comedy and the cool stage set, Isaak delivered the kind of holiday show you want to be an annual part of your Christmas season.
The fact this is probably the only time Salt Lake City will get the Isaak holiday treatment made the night even more memorable.
THE PUNCH BROTHERS, THE DEPOT, Friday, Dec. 7, 9 p.m., $20 advance/$25 day of show
Anyone who’s seen Chris Thile play mandolin–in the Punch Brothers, his former band Nickel Creek or as a solo artist–wasn’t surprised when he was recently awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, otherwise known as the “genius grant.” The fleet-fingered Thile certainly lives up to the MacArthur Foundation’s honor for those who “have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction.” The surprising thing was that the Foundation saw fit to recognize a guy playing an instrument many associate with bluegrass “redneck” culture. Thile’s Punch Brothers are no rednecks, but they can get rootsy with their tunes. The quartet can also cover the likes of Radiohead to great effect, even while eschewing that band’s electronic flourishes in favor of acoustic adventures. Joining Punch Brothers at The Depot is Milk Carton Kids.
CHRIS ISAAK HOLIDAY SHOW, KINGSBURY HALL, Wednesday, Dec. 5, 7:30 p.m., $42-$58
For many casual music fans, Chris Isaak might be considered a “one-hit wonder” thanks to the monster pop-chart success of his ballad “Wicked Game,” and the relative lack of chart success for his other songs. But that label sells Isaak WAY short. He and his band have been perfecting a winning blend of retro-rock and comical between-song banter for a couple decades now. In concert, the strength of Isaak’s catalog truly shines on songs like “Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing,” “Two Hearts” and “Blue Spanish Sky,” or his completely worthy covers of classics like “Cryin’.” His most recent project was a tribute to Sun Records, and I can’t think of an artist who could tap into Sun’s sound any better than Isaak and Co. Here’s hoping we get a lot of those songs at this show, along with the Christmastime covers and originals Isaak has recorded through the years. Kat Edmonson opens the show.
Adam Price, executive director of the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, has resigned, which has to be a setback for Utah’s modern art scene.
It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that Price has been a pivotal person in the state’s education in and acceptance of contemporary art. Price especially embraced street art, what many in the city dismissed as graffiti. Price believes that good street art is a window into a city’s soul. He dragged the city toward enlightenment beginning with the 337 Project in 2007. Price, a Harvard-trained attorney, and his wife Desi invited dozens of artists to create on the walls of an aging Salt Lake City office building, knowing that it —and their work— would ultimately be destroyed.
The project became a cultural milestone for many street artists and was a turning point for Price, who soon after left his lucrative 14-year law career to become the director of the Salt Lake Art Center. It was telling that he immediately pushed the center to be renamed the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, the only institution in the city committed to art of the moment.
He also brought on vibrant young curators, first Micol Hebron from Los Angeles, then Aaron Moulton from Berlin.
Now Price has left UMOCA saying he has no firm plans besides taking a 60-day sabbatical after three years without a vacation.
He admits that burn-out from running and expanding UMOCA through a recession is a large part of the reason he is leaving. Price says he “was burned out about three months into the job,” but hung on until the museum was stable.
“It’s been a really long three years,” he says. “It took a lot of work to get it up and going again in that climate. I decided [now] that the museum is at a place where it is a good time to move on.”
One thing is certain, Price says, he will not return to the law: “I love working in cultural institutions because of the kind of impacts a great cultural institution can have on a city. It’s fun and it feels meaningful.”
Price says he may leave Utah. “I don’t have any specific plans. I’m talking to some culture institutions, in the state and out of the state. We’ll have to see how it plays out.”
But he says that individuals, no matter their impact, are only cogs in a great museum or art scene.
“It’s important to remember the institution is more important the the individual people,” Price says. “I hope the changes I’ve made will stick. That’s the life of cultural institutions.”
KINKY FRIEDMAN, THE STATE ROOM, Thursday, Dec. 6, 8 p.m., $25
Kinky Friedman might be forever linked with Texas, but the man is truly a national treasure. Forget labels–Kinky calls himself an “author, columnist, musician, beautician and Governor of the Heart of Texas–because you’re pretty much guaranteed to find yourself laughing, inspired and entertained whenever you encounter the rabble-rousing Friedman doing something. “Something” right now is what he’s calling the “BiPolar Tour,” a “fact-finding mission” on the political attitudes of Americans in 2012. Realistically, it means Friedman is hitting the road to deliver performances that combine live music and storytelling/spoken word with some reading from his recently published works, including his best-selling recent tome penned with Willie Nelson, Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die. If you check him out, I can almost guarantee you’ll be on board the Kinky bandwagon in no time.
When the announcement of Friday’s show pairing Alejandro Escovedo and Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo first crossed my radar, I had to rub my eyes and look twice to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.
Neither man is a stranger to Utah. Escovedo, the rootsy rock-and-roll Zelig, and Hidalgo, the affable musical mastermind of Los Lobos, both visit Salt Lake City and its surrounding towns almost annually on their various tours, Escovedo with his scorching Sensitive Boys, and Hidalgo with his long-time partners from East L.A.
This show, though, is different. It’s being billed as an “evening of songs and stories,” just Escovedo and Hidalgo on stage, swapping tales and playing and singing some of their own–and each other’s–songs. I’ve never seen Los Lobos and Escovedo tour together, and the idea of these two joining up for a night of music inspired me to track down Escovedo and find out how this show–one of only two the pair is doing, the other being Santa Fe–managed to land in Salt Lake City.
“Well, you DO have the Red Iguana,” Escovedo joked, before delving into his past work with Hidalgo. “We have a history, and it goes way back to the True Believers (one of Escovedo’s ’80s-era roots-rock bands) and Los Lobos. We toured together a bunch back around when they put out How Will The Wolf Survive?”
David Hidalgo, left, with his Los Lobos bandmate Louie Perez. Hidalgo plays with Alejandro Escovedo at The State Room on Friday, Dec. 7
Escovedo is an inspired songwriter, and a consummate rock ‘n’ roll frontman when he plays with his ace band the Senstive Boys. Hidalgo is a scorching guitar player and musical savant who often gets called by the likes of Bob Dylan and Tom Waits to deliver some guitar or accordion flourishes to their work. Escovedo’s natural charisma and Hidalgo’s incredible dedication to serving the song whether out front or playing in back of the stage, should make this one memorable show.
Escovedo remembers seeing Los Lobos for the first time in his Austin hometown, and quickly realizing that Hidalgo was “an incredible musician and singer. I just hope I can keep up with him.”
There’s little doubt Escovedo will do just that. He’s an incredible live performer himself, and his incisive narratives have made a big fan out of none other than Bruce Springsteen, who has recruited Escovedo to open tours and collaborate on stage more than once.
Escovedo said he and Hidalgo are figuring out six or seven songs from each man’s catalog–a process he figures will be easier for Hidalgo than himself. “He can play anything,” Escovedo said. “I’ll have to do a little more homework, find out what I can do for his songs. Maybe sing a little.” The set will delve deeply into the duo’s combined century of pioneering American music; Escovedo noted that he’ll play songs from some of his critically hailed older albums like The Boxing Mirror that he hasn’t played in a while, since he typically plays newer material on tours, and he’s been consistently putting out new music since a battle with hepatitis sidelined him for a few years. Just this year, Escovedo put out another excellent rock record, Big Station.
While Hidalgo often does all-acoustic shows with Los Lobos or his many side projects, Escovedo has shied away from doing shows without his full band, solo-acoustic-style. But that is changing, he said.
“I’m getting to the point where I want to do more of that,” Escovedo said. “I always felt like a limited guitar player. I don’t feel so much that way anymore.”
AN EVENING WITH ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO & DAVID HIDALGO: SONGS AND STORIES FROM EAST L.A. TO AUSTIN, THE STATE ROOM, Friday, Dec. 7, 8 p.m., $35
Daniel Nailen 