Stray Cats at Hammersmith Apollo last night. Saw Brian Setzer a few years ago when he did his big band Jump Jive and Wail stuff and his guitar playing was amazing. Really edgy, some phenomenal licks. So when Mrs S spotted this coming up we thought it had to be done.
Setzer's playing last night was slicker with the spikes and bumps smoothed out. More Bill Hayley than Stray Cats IMO. And once you've done that to rockabilly the tunes can tend to sound much the same as each other. Some cheesy 'spontaneous' well rehearsed, poorly delivered lines 'well, gee, Slim, whadda ya reckon - shall we play X?' type stuff didn't help. Lee Rocker's slap bass was great - he played with energy and enthusiasm, also sang a lot - whether buy design or necessity I don't know as Setzer's voice was giving out fairly early on. We gave it an hour but left early. Which meant no crush on the tube going home, which was good.
Best thing I thought was to see most of the punters in full rockabilly regalia, tattoos and hair gel. I imagine the die hard fans would have enjoyed it regardless.