The legendary Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe with Los Straitjackets performed at the Fred Kavli Theater in Thousand Oaks, CA Sunday night (8/28). Costello and Lowe are both British while Los Straitjackets from Nashville, TN originally. Los Straitjackets served as Lowe’s backing band, but also performed two instrumental songs; “Kawanga!” and a cover of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” which everyone remembers from Titanic. Lowe and Costello go back to the 70’s together as Lowe produced Costello’s first five albums. Lowe and Los Straitjackets have each released 14 albums. Los Straitjackets consists of original member Eddie Angel (Guitar), bassist Pete Curry (Since 98), guitarist Greg Townson (Since 2010) and drummer Chris Sprague joined in 2012.
With Lowe, Los Straitjackets performed 10 of his own songs and after six of those they played the two instrumentals before being joined by Lowe Again. Lowe’s hits included “Half a Boy and Half a Man,” “Cruel to Be Kind,” and ended on “I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock & Roll.)” Lowe sounded fantastic and Los Straitjackets are all incredible musicians.
Costello came out after a changeover with The Imposters, his band over the last 20 years. Costello had the audience give a round of applause for “his hero” Nick Lowe. Costello is Grammy winner and Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame inductee and received an OBE. Costello last played L.A. at The YouTube theater this past November. With Costello’s original band the Attractions he released 11 albums originally following his debut solo album and another one later on. With the Imposters, Costello released four albums, the most recent being The Boy Named If released in January this year. Costello also released albums with Allen Touissant, Burt Bacharach, and The Roots. All together Costello has released 32 albums and 12 hit the top 10 in the U.K. with another 13 in the top 50.
The Imposters are keyboardist Steve Nieve, drummer Pete Thomas, bassist Davey Faragher, and for this tour special guest guitarist Charlie Sexton, Bob Dylan’s long-time guitarist. Costello played a high energy set of 20-songs from The Attractions to solo and Imposters including all the hits like “Veronica” “Pump It Up,” “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea,” and a three song encore of “Alison,” “Radio Radio,” and “I Want You.” Costello is both a pioneer of British New Wave and Punk.
