Sarah Borges — opening for Marshall Crenshaw y Los Straitjackets on Saturday at Cafe Nine — reminisced about her many experiences and adventures at the club over the past 15 years that she has been playing there, including the time she knocked her front teeth out.
“So I expect a lot from you guys,” she said.
Borges hails from Boston but is a regular visitor to New Haven with her band the Broken Singles. On Saturday she performed a solo set armed with only her electric guitar and a gift for engaging the crowd with her stories and songs, as if she was close friends and drinking buddies with each of them. Smiling and joking throughout, she tore through 10 songs of bluesy rock and roll, occasionally banging her boot on the stage for a bit of accompaniment.
Offering up descriptions of her songs between numbers rather than titles (“this is a song about putting on a small dress and going out on the town and meeting strangers, all kinds of strangers”), she also easily interacted with the audience, especially people standing right at the edge of the stage. One of them even jumped up and adjusted the guitar resting behind Borges when she almost knocked it from its stand; she had stated earlier that the guitar belonged to Crenshaw and she hoped she wouldn’t knock it over.
“I’m telling Marshall,” someone yelled.
“I’ll tell him myself,” Borges answered with a smile. Everyone laughed along.
The crowd was at capacity by the time Borges’s set was over. The next set of the night began with Los Straitjackets tearing through six songs of surf rock-tinged instrumentals complete with choreography and a flashing of their newest album, What’s So Funny Bout Peace, Love and Los Straitjackets, which is comprised of covers of songs written or co-written by Nick Lowe (it was released this past May). Wearing Mexican wrestling masks and keeping the chatter to a minimum, the band connected easily with the audience, who danced and cheered along to each song with encouragement from the band, though it didn’t seem to be needed. Los Straitjackets played tight but kept the music and the fun loose and with the right amount of juice for a party.
By the time Marshall Crenshaw joined the band for a first number together — also an instrumental — the crowd was more than ready to keep the momentum going. Crenshaw rose through the music scene in the early ‘80s with incredibly catchy tunes like “Someday, Someway” as well as his role as Buddy Holly in the 1987 movie La Bamba. He began his set of vocals with the Holly tune “Crying, Waiting, Hoping,” which he sang in that film, and 30 years later, he still captured the lyrical sweetness that both he and Holly had in common.
After six songs, guitarists Eddie Angel and Greg Townson and bassist Pete Curry left the stage. Drummer Chris Sprague — whom everyone kept referring to all night as Ringo Starr — remained to accompany Crenshaw on three songs, including his classic “Here She Goes Again” as well as “Driving and Dreaming,” off Crenshaw’s 2013 album of the same name. The Tommy Roe song “Sheila” had the audience singing along.
The band then returned for two songs without Crenshaw including a cover of “Bus Stop” by The Hollies. Another number included not only a solo by Angel that had the rest of the members ceasing their playing and standing off to the side to observe, but also a small piece of the standard “Moon River.”
When Crenshaw returned to the stage, he began with “Someday, Someway” — his first hit — which caused the crowd to erupt into a singalong as well as dancing. He and the band then tore through five more songs: another Buddy Holly cover; “Cynical Girl,” a Crenshaw classic from his first album; and “Monday Morning Rock,” from his second album Field Day, which Crenshaw mentioned was being reissued in vinyl soon.
After a very short break, Los Straitjackets returned without Crenshaw for one more performance of the Batman TV show theme song mashed up with the surf classic “Wipeout,” much to the delight of the audience, who provided the vocals of “Batman!”
Crenshaw then returned to join the band for the Nick Lowe classic “Cruel to Be Kind,” which saw the crowd erupt in cheers and another singalong.
“What a beautiful rock ‘n’ roll song,” Crenshaw proclaimed.
The final song of the night turned out to be the first song Crenshaw ever recorded, the single “Something’s Gonna Happen.” After that song the performers left the stage for the final time, though the crowd did not seem to want to disperse in case their heroes came back for one more. Many fans lingered long after the show was over to talk about the sacred place these rock ‘n’ roll stalwarts and their songs had in their minds and their memories. The general consensus of the crowd: This show had made some new indelible musical memories of its own.
The song above by Sarah Borgus is Stop and Think It Over (not the song of the same name done by Dale & Grace in the 1950's or 60's.). It's written by Greg Cartwright who is behind the bands Compulsive Gamblers and Reigning Sound. The song was included on a Mary Weiss album (produced by Greg Cartwright). Very obscure. That's a great, catchy, pop tune.
Marshall Crenshaw did some of his more obscure stuff (apparently to please himself) which was fine with me. Too bad he didn't do more rockers that would have been a better use of Los Straightjackets as his back up band. He hasn't been out with a backup band since he toured with the Bottle Rockets (to the best of my knowledge). Would have been great to hear them do "On The Run".That was a great concert. I didn't even fall asleep and made it all the way to the end. Los Straightjackets were great. Haven't been this good since their early days (in the 1990s?). Their style lends itself to this venue. I've also seen them in a sit down (more formal) setting and it just doesn't work as well from what I've seen.