BRIAN SETZER ORCHESTRA -
UB Center For The Arts Wed Nov23rd 7:30pm Tickets start at $37
They say a prophet is never recognized in his own country, sometimes musicians, too. New Yorker Brian Setzer had little success playing in his own country. Gigging around his hometown NYC area Setzer went unnoticed. Frustrated he and his two band mates sold their instruments for one-way tickets to London and renamed their trio Stray Cats because that’s what they were. Suddenly everything was different. Setzer did the seemingly impossible. He successfully countered the London punk scene that dominated the England at the time. Fashion-wise Setzer looked punk with loads of tattoos, black leather and peircings, but instead of playing music that was the raw angst of punk Setzer reached back to the 1950s when that angst was filtered through the unbridled joy of early hip shaking rock and roll, and he was great at it. He could dance, he could sing, he looked cool as shit and most important the boy could rock.
The band’s early hits “Stray Cat Strut” and “Rock This Town” were a refreshing blast of the new rockabilly sound and Setzer’s clean guitar licks were signature to that sound.
Any music fan who hasn’t seen the videos of these songs from the early days of MTV owes it to themselves to see them.
“Stray Cat Strut” http://tinyurl.com/zsam4er
“Rock This Town” http://tinyurl.com/joju5tt
Stray Casts eventually disbanded and Setzer’s rockabilly sound morphed into the 19-piece Brian Setzer Orchestra. This time Setzer reached even farther back to the 1940s when the excitement was swing bands and jump music. Again, Setzer tapped into the madcap energy of past music that once had young people doing somersaults on the dance floor. When you see the video of his Grammy winning cover of the Louie Prima song “Jump, Jive An’ Wail” it’s easy to see how his big band is a natural and wonderful evolution from the stripped down trio of Stray Cats.
“Jump, Jive An’ Wail” https://goo.gl/App1g3
Setzer is bringing that 19-piece big band to the UB Center for the Arts for the Brian Setzer Orchestra’s 13th Annual Christmas Rocks Tour. Setzer’s trademark guitar work and vocal stylings are matched with his Orchestra’s rockin’ big-band horn arrangements creating an unbelievable combination guaranteed to rock you into the holiday spirit.
