Combining nonsensical stage presence and showmanship with no-nonsense rock ’n’ roll, the masked men of Los Straightjackets surfed in to Columbus, Ohio, on a wave of instrumental covers and original music that were at once singular and universal.
Give the quartet an insufferable song – like maybe, “My Heart Will Go On” – and they’ll give fans a thick slab of irresistible surf rock in return.
Celine Dion’s “Titanic” abomination signaled the homestretch of the on the masked band’s 30 Años de Los Straitjackets tour May 8 inside a sold-out Natalie’s Grandview. Theme songs from “Batman” and “Midnight Cowboy” followed with guitarists Eddie Angel and Greg Townson playing in twin harmony over tight rhythmic flooring from Pete Curry on bass and drummer Chris Sprague.
Performing at the confluence of musical seriousness and playful showmanship, Los Straitjackets deal all-inclusive entertainment to those at the table.
So it happened that the band – crammed on to a tiny stage in the smaller of Natalie’s two concert spaces and clad in all black with matching medallions around their necks, their heads under individualized Lucha Libre wrestling masks – formed kick lines, swung their axes in unison, struck exaggerated wrestling-ring poses and incorporated a squeaking rubber chicken into “Itchy Chicken.”
They paired such tomfoolery with musicianship 180 degrees removed from the hilarity, as when Angel, alone on stage save for a dancing Sprague, offered snippets of “The Last Time,” “Ticket to Ride” and “Rumble” between lightning-fast improvisation. The guitarist later launched a mas cowbell gag and he and his bandmates ripped into bits of “Low Rider” and “Don’t Fear the Reaper” for the punchline.
Introduced by a red-suited hype man 90 minutes before the final encore of the Trashmen’s “Surfin’ Bird,” which boasted the evening’s only vocal courtesy of Sprague, the Straightjackets set the crazy tone early with the originals “Pacifica” and “Outta Gear,” the latter featuring Angel striking his sparkly guitar and running his fingers over the top of the neck with virtuosic precision and thrilling sounds. They cooled things down with the sock-hop, slow-dancer “April Showers;” nodded to their inspiration on the Ventures’ “Driving Guitars (Ventures Twist);” and offered familiar-to-everyone melodies such as “Love Potion Number Nine” and the ironically titled “Sing, Sing, Sing.”
The penultimate “Tailspin” found Sprague coming out from the kit to play lead guitar; Angel switching to bass; and Curry bashing away on the drums. It seemed designed to underscore that behind the seeming unseriousness of it all, Los Straitjackets are about serious musicality first and last.
Los Straightjackets at Natalie’s Grandview

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