Story & Photographs by Diane Fleischman
Fans filled the Music Fest Café last night for Marshall Crenshaw y Los Straitjacket. Opening the show was Milton, a two-man band who filled the stage with guitar, bass, and harmonica. Their easy listening sounds were perfect for warming up the crowd.
Crenshaw’s backing band for this tour is Los Straitjacket, originally from Nashville. They were donned in black, and wore masks throughout their performance. It may seem like an unusual pairing, with their garage rock/surf music style combined with Crenshaw’s pop and rockabilly brand, but it worked very well.
Los Straitjacket took the stage first and performed their instrumental favorites like “Space Mosquito”, and a recognizable “My Heart Will Go On” from the movie ‘Titanic’. As they spoke in between songs, their broken Spanish became comical.
Crenshaw took the stage and opened with Buddy Holly’s “Crying, Waiting, Hoping”, the first of two Buddy Holly songs performed. As the set unfolded, it was clear that the songs selected were not only Crenshaw’s personal favorites that he loved to perform in concert, but also the artists that were his biggest influences. Songs such as “Baby She’s Gone” by Jack Scott, “Old Brown Shoe”, by The Beatles, and “Bus Stop” by The Hollies. Of course Crenshaw threw in his own compositions, “Deliliah”, “Live and Learn”, and his eighties hit, “Some Day, Some Way”.
Los Straitjacket returned to the stage first for the encore, as fans rose to their feet for the Batman theme song, followed by Crenshaw’s rendition of Nick Lowe’s “Cruel to Be Kind”. The show closed with “Somethings Gonna Happen.”
Marshall Crenshaw y Los Straitjacket continue their tour with a show tonight at Havanna’s in New Hope, followed by a show Saturday in Rehoboth Beach in Delaware, then it’s off to the west coast.
