Chris Isaak at Wente Vineyards

Local boy makes good again on a balmy night in Livermore

Chris Isaak's sold-out concert at Wente Vineyards was a treat from start to finish—this Stockton natve's annual pilgrimmage to this swanky Livermore concert venue has become one of the East Bay's most pleasant summer traditions. As Isaak took the stage, a sweltering sun mercifully set, and a balmy evening ensued. Dressed in a Nudie-esque blue suit (Isaak joked that he saw it on late night Mexican television and just had to have it) and accompanied by his longtime band, Isaak tore through a two hour set of his retro rockers and sad love songs, peppered with his trademark wiseguy humor. Isaak also played four new songs off an unreleased, upcoming album, all of which sounded great, particularly a Jackson Browne-sounding rocker that followed his biggest hit, "Wicked Game."

The only thorn in an otherwise rosy evening was the behavior of four drunk-on-beer concertgoers behind us. I'm not sure what it is in beer's chemical composition that makes people talk so loudly and rudely during a musical performance, but I've been noticing at a lot of concerts recently, including Allison Krauss and Robert Plant at the Greek last weekend. These four last night should have been kicked out of the show, they did not shut up from the first song to the last, were begged to be quiet by their neighboring patrons and were asked to quiet down by security.

Posted at 02:55 PM in Pete's Popcorn Picks | Permalink