Chris Isaak at the Crystal Grand
While the Wisconsin Dells may be the most exhausting tourist vacuum the state has to offer, it really seems like the perfect tour stop for a Roy Orbison dead-ringer with goop-swooped hair and a magenta rhinestone suit. The A.V. Club doesn’t typically stretch its arms out to the Dells, but we were more than happy to drive off to the pink-painted Crystal Grand Theater for Chris Isaak.
Isaak and his longtime backing band Silvertone (decked out in black rhinestone suits) wasted no time blasting into their set with the organ-fueled, rockabilly shuffle of “Lonely With A Broken Heart.” The snarling croons of Isaak soared over his anxious guitar strumming as drummer Kenny Dale Johnson hammered out the snappy rhythms. From the beginning, bassist Rowland Salley and lead guitarist Hershel Yatovitz were doing some pretty wicked synchronized strutting across the massive stage, which was lit up in milkshake-diner pinks and blues as video clips were projected onto a massive, amplifier-shaped screen behind the band.
After working through the golden falsetto choruses of “Somebody’s Crying” from 1995’s Forever Blue, Isaak decided to offer a bit of stage banter over the self-referential venue trivia that the Crystal Grand projected onto the walls before the band went on. He focused on one detail in particular, the fact that the Oak Ridge Boys have played there a whopping 32 times. “This is our first time here.” Isaak declared. “If we come back 31 more times, we can tie with the Oak Ridge Boys. Actually, I don’t know what y’all were expecting here tonight, but I think we’re gonna do nothing but Oak Ridge numbers.” The singer didn’t seem to take himself too seriously either: “I know we wear all the sparkles, but trust me, we are definitely not a professional band.”
As the massive set progressed, Isaak and Silvertone weren’t afraid to switch things up. They cranked up for shuffling rocker “Go Walking Down There,” wound down for “We Lost Our Way” (Johnson played a single snare drum for this tune), and took on gospel for “Worked It Out Wrong,” with Johnson, Salley, and Yatovitz standing off to the side like back-up singers in a classic doo-wop band. Isaak even wandered off into the crowd during an awesome cover of Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender,” during which the singer would pose for pictures, sit on a woman’s lap, and rip on another woman for reeking of scotch. When the latter fan pulled out a piece of paper for Isaak to sign, the crooner asked, “What is this? Your bar tab?”
The set reached all the way across Isaak’s 25-year back catalog and of course included a perfect rendition of the classic “Wicked Game.” Isaak even pulled out impressive covers of James Brown’s “I’ll Go Crazy” and Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman," which was uncanny in its shaky vocal delivery and reverberated guitar lines.
After bringing some ridiculous dancing girls up to the stage for the George Thorogood-alluding set-closer “Baby Did A Bad Thing,” Isaak and company walked offstage, only to wrap up the evening with a tiny set of encores that was topped off with a spacious rendition of “Blue Spanish Sky.”
