While he’s certainly had no shortage of success in his 40-plus years in music, both as a performer and a producer, Nick Lowe never quite crossed that threshold into superstardom. As far as music industry career arcs go, though, his is almost ideal: He makes a comfortable living doing what he loves, and millions of people know his songs. But if they met him on the street few would know him from Adam. Big fame is often distracting and creatively inhibiting, but by always being just under the mainstream radar, Lowe has been able to simply go about his business, building up an impressive body of work which was on brilliant display Sunday night at Turner Hall Ballroom.
By the time the show kicked off, the venue was all but full, with every one of the circular tables spread across the dancefloor surrounded almost exclusively by middle-aged white people. The seating arrangement proved a little awkward (what’s wrong with nice, orderly rows?), but the crowd quietly settled in as Cut Worms, a.k.a. Max Clarke, took the stage. His sound—a gentle callback to the folky innocence of the early ’60s—laid a hush over the audience to the point where every cough or beer can being cracked could be heard clear across the hall. His oftentimes lovelorn tunes, along with an occasional cover like Ricky Nelson’s “Up to You,” were well crafted and heartfelt, but perhaps a little soporific for the opening slot.
The energy rose noticeably as Lowe approached the microphone, even if, as he addressed the audience, the 68-year-old singer-songwriter came off as charmingly subdued and understated. After professing his love for Milwaukee and assuring the crowd that, while many of the numbers they were about to hear were short, there were plenty of them; he went on to introduce his oddball backing band for this tour, twangy guitar instrumentalists Los Straitjackets. A notable name in their own right known for their ever-present Mexican wrestling masks, the group cut a strange image in contrast to Lowe’s straight-laced look, but they meshed musically as they led things off with his 1976 classic “So It Goes,” a single with the distinction of being the first ever release from Stiff Records.
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After about 30-minutes of Lowe material, plus the Northern soul staple “There’s a Ghost in My House” as a Halloween treat, he let Los Straitjackets take center stage. The Nashville luchadores’ live presence is intentionally shambolic, with not-so-synchronized choreography and banter in broken Spanish, but their revved-up, crowd-pleasing surf rock is anything but.
Lowe eventually returned for many of his best-remembered tunes, naturally including “Cruel to Be Kind,” before closing out the (first) encore with the unfortunately ultra-relevant “(What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding,” made famous by Elvis Costello. When the audience still demanded more, Lowe alone emerged and turned the tables with a heart-wrenching take on Costello’s “Alison.” Who needs to be a household name when you’ve got music this good?
