The Brian Setzer Orchestra performs Thursday night at The Joint. Photos by Angela Temple
The
Brian Setzer Orchestra easily performed one of the best live concerts of 2012 Thursday night at The Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa.
Setzer brought down the house with holiday classics gilded in brassy warmth and Setzer’s velvety, bright surf-jazz guitar and topped with his punk-rock Sinatra vocals.
He lead his 17-member big band in swing, bop, boogie-woogie, R&B, rockabilly, surf, good old-fashioned roots rock and honesty.
Man, that cat loves what he does. His grins, stomps, hollers and hunkered-down jams rallied fans to standing ovations and cheers as the preeminent modern big band leader.
His versatility was the star of the show.
“Welcome to my Christmas party,” he yelled at one point.
It’s hard to decide which were better, the versions of his originals, including his days with the Stray Cats, or his reinterpretations of holiday classics.
“Drive Like Lightning (Crash Like Thunder)” was an uber-technical, classic surfer guitar tune led with deft, rolling riffs and trill-like guitar runs.
His “Honey Man” was a mind-bogglingly fast take on the Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov orchestral interlude “Flight of the Bumblebee.”
His “Grinch-colored” custom Gretsch guitar nearly stole the show from him — and he let it. He showed off his collection as he played. There was a leopard guitar, “every rockabilly man needs a leopard guitar, right?” he said as the crowd screamed. Then there was the hot-rod-red-and-gold-flake guitar. And that honeyed wood Gretsch. Lordy.
One obvious thing about his showmanship is that he isn’t tied to a fleet of effects pedals at his feet. He stomps rhythm with a whammy bar and 10 physics-defying digits. Truly old school.
His version of the Stray Cats hit “Stray Cat Strut” mingled with “You’re A Mean One Mr. Grinch,” the latter perfectly suited to his vocals.
Brassy wails egged him on as Setzer sang “You’re as cuddly as a cactus,
And as charming as an eel, Mr. Grinch!” He ended the song by chasing a costumed Grinch of the stage with his leopard-print guitar.
“This is our first time here, whaddaya think?” he asked the sold-out crowd. “We’ll definitely be coming back here.”
In a sharp black suit and up-to-there platinum pompadour, he mixed with an eclectic crowd as women in leather jackets with skull designs danced next to baby boomer men in Santa hats and sweaters. Tattoos and workshirts blended with three-piece suits. Ushers danced in the aisles.
In his encore, “The Nutcracker Suite” required he read from sheet music — the only time in the night he did so.
“This isn’t the newspaper,” he joked as he maneuvered the cumbersome papers on a music stand. His version was incredibly intricate, infused with jazz elements, bossa nova beats enough originality that jaws literally dropped as the audience stood to clap and cheer.
Trombone, sax, trumpet, doghouse bass, drums, bass clarinet, clarinet, flutes, xylophone, well-heeled backing vocalists ... And even Setzer’s mic’d vintage amps each had moments in the spotlight.
Opening act
Totsy (as in hotsy-totsy) took the stage to a somewhat reticent crowd, but quickly won them over with swinging, sultry, burlesque and Vaudvillian originals.
Flame-haired frontwoman Beth Curry came ready with Broadway credentials, humor and sex appeal. She’s a fantasy in fishnets and red go-go boots and with a seven-piece backing band, singing dusky, quirky, gypsy-esque show tunes that might be created for a Tim Burton film.
She’s the misfit toy that everyone wants to take home.
Setlist: -- Dig That Crazy Santa Claus
-- Sleigh Ride
-- ‘49 Mercury Blues
-- This Cat’s on a Hot Tin Roof
-- Boogie Woogie Santa Claus (Mabel Scott cover)
-- (She’s) Sexy + 17 (Stray Cats cover)
-- Stray Cat Strut / You’re A Mean One Mr. Grinch (Stray Cats cover)
-- Drive Like Lightning (Crash Like Thunder)
-- Honey Man
-- Angels We Have Heard On High
-- Jump, Jive an’ Wail (Louis Prima cover)
-- Run Rudolph Run (Chuck Berry cover)
-- Jingle Bell Rock (Bobby Helms cover)
-- Blue Christmas (Elvis Presley cover)
-- Fishnet Stockings (Stray Cats cover)
-- Rock This Town (Stray Cats cover)
Encore:
-- The Nutcracker Suite
-- Gettin’ in the Mood (For Christmas)
-- Jingle Bells
