That Magnetic Charm Is Back, Pulling At The Heart Strings

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday October 21, 2004

Bernard Zuel

CHRIS ISAAK State Theatre October 19

For all I know Chris Isaak goes back alone after every concert to an empty hotel room where he cries himself to sleep over the unfairness of life while hugging his pillow.

He may well have absolutely no luck with women and when speaking to them one-on-one, away from the stage, he may be as tongue-tied and useless as any teenage boy going on his first date. All this is possible (hey, I doubt it, too; I just said it's possible) but no one is thinking it and none of it matters during the two hours in which Isaak is on stage.

In this world, this Heart Shaped World, we all come not just expecting but demanding that Isaak is the charmer and the winner, the lover and the sinner who need only crook his finger to have his choice - of men or women, straight or gay for that matter.

It's why when he sheds the jacket of his mustard-with-blue-flashes suit there are screams; when he turns away from us and bends down to pick up a drink there are sighs; and when he does a little hip grinding there's a palpable intake of breath.

Of course, it's all jocular. Most of us recognise we're never going to be him or have him (though the two women alongside me seemed to be harbouring more than a little bit of hope), his jokes are funny and the cheap-seats revival-meeting schtick, the vamping and the synchronised guitar moves are so laden with irony they're magnetised.

But we are part of this show, too, and we play our role, willingly and as enthusiastically as do Isaak and his band. And unlike his last shows here nearly two years ago when everything was surface-charming as usual but Isaak seemed to be merely going through the motions, this time it did feel that everyone was up for and interested in the show.

Just because the audience knew what was coming - the mirrored suit and run up into the balconies in the encore; and the offering of one band member as the night's sexual sacrificial lamb - it didn't lessen the appeal.

The songs? Oh yes, the ballads which made his name more than a decade ago, when he briefly hinted at a greatness he's never come close to again, were all here and his falsetto is as lovely as ever.

And despite surprisingly low volume we got a burst of surf and rock tunes, too. But the show is the thing and Chris Isaak Showtime is a winner.

* Chris Isaak plays at Panthers on October 26 and Enmore Theatre on October 27.

© 2004 Sydney Morning Herald

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