Wicked Game

Chris Isaak at The Manchester Academy Friday 13th April.
Words and pictures by Rikki

Chris Isaak and his superb band came back to Manchester after a 15-year gap, and absolutely blew the crowd away.

It was a marvelous gig, one of the best I have ever been to, which is really saying something when you see as many gigs as I do...
Chris Isaak and his band treated us to a dazzling array of different songs handled in different ways, and all expertly, enjoyably, mesmerisingly done.

Everything from noisy dirty bluesy rock to simple acoustic numbers. Chris played solo for some songs, and they played as a four piece band for others, and alongside this, they had featured artists on keyboard/accordion and additional percussion for some of the songs.

All the great old songs, and great new songs were there, they played Wicked Game and Blue Hotel, Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing, Graduation Day, Forever Blue, Only the Lonely, San Francisco Days, Somebody’s Crying, Two Hearts, and many many more. It was utter bliss for any Chris Isaak fan and for anyone who just likes great music fabulously played and sung.
Chris Isaak’s voice has, if anything, improved with time. On record, he’s great, but live, he is just jaw dropping. He really can hit all those low low and high high notes!

Alongside the superb music from a band who know each other inside out from so many years playing together, there is Chris Isaak’s phenomenal stage presence. He is so charismatic you could fry an egg on him...
Never mind his sparkly suit, this man positively shines.
And he’s FUNNY, as fans will remember from the greatly missed Chris Isaak Show, with its true to life good natured humorous situations.
I asked the lovely Kenney, Chris’s drummer, about the TV show, and whether people now recognised Chris and the other band members more since they made the show, and he confirmed that they certainly did, even people who had not previously listened to much of their music, and expressed how much fun it had been for the band to make the show.
“We really enjoyed making that show, we made it in Canada, which was really cool, and although in the beginning, we got sent some Hollywood type scripts, which we thought were a bit dull and safe, we soon found that we actually had a lot of freedom, partly because Chris was an executive producer on the show. We ended up making a lot of episodes based on our own real life experiences, and those of our friends in the music business, who all had great stories to tell! We especially loved working with those other musicians on our show, that was a blast!�
I asked him how the band were enjoying playing in Europe, and especially Manchester, again.

“Oh yes, we love being here! It’s been a long long time since we played here, and we’ve been longing to get back! We came over to do some tv, and Jonathon Ross’s radio show, in the autumn, and London was just beautiful, and the British people were so warm and friendly, like we had never been away! We couldn’t wait to get back here and play some gigs again! And tonight’s show in Manchester has been great, we’ve all had such a good time here again!�
I asked Chris if he agreed, and had had a good time so far in England.
“Oh yes, sure, it’s been great, just as good as the food!�
“Sorry?� I said, wondering if I’d misheard “The food? Doesn’t everybody think that British food is terrible?!�
“No, not at all, we’ve had wonderful food while we’ve been here, and the people have all been wonderful too!� But that’s Chris for you, handsome, charming, talented and funny, and, he’s a genuinely nice guy too, as we saw tonight...
There were a couple of children in the audience, not tiny ones, but pretty young, and it was very very hot down at the front, where we all were. Chris himself had sweat trickling and dripping off his face, and signalled to his stage crew for bottles of water. Instead of drinking either of them himself, he smilingly passed a bottle to each of the children, who gratefully drank them. It wasn't an emergency moment, just a kind one. Who does that sort of thing in the middle of a gig? Not many singers I’ve ever seen. What a lovely man!
The late substitued all-standing Manchester Academy was not an easy venue for this gig, relatively small and cramped as it is, and yet, somehow, it created the ideal conditions for a legendary gig. Chris Isaak and his band are stadium fillers. With their astounding talent and showmanship they can easily fill the largest venue, and yet somehow, there we all were in that intimate little venue, up close and personal, with a truly world class act clearly having as much fun as their enthusiastic crowd.
“So you all enjoyed the gig tonight?� I asked Chris.
“Oh yeah, we all had a real good time! It is great to be back!�
You could not be more right Chris, it is great to have you all back.

Enjoy your stay, and come and see us again soon, won’t you?!