POP MUSIC REVIEW : WEIRD WIGGINESS FROM ISAAK

With strings of plastic tiki patio lights hanging over the stage setting an appropriately wiggy mood, Stockton native Chris Isaak and his three-piece backing band Silvertone look and sound like everything that was weird about 1962.

If the Cramps deconstruct the Elvis persona as if Presley’s twin brother had risen from the grave, Isaak and company reinvent the Big E if he’d just returned from exile in Guam.

Performing at the Roxy on Tuesday, Isaak showcased material from his two albums, the best of which (“Wild Love,” “You Owe Me Some Kind Of Love” and “Voodoo”) sport a brooding, tortured intensity that’s wonderful, even as it tends to become monochromatic. Although a nail-biting ballad, “Waiting for the Rain to Fall,” and an unidentified, Orbisonesque encore provided at least some welcome color.

An often-hilarious, ‘tween-tune raconteur, Isaak also gets much mileage out of the sonic shenanigans of six-string stylist James Calvin Wilsey, one of the foremost control guitar freaks. The band also scores Big Time for augmenting its briskly paced, 60-minute set with a half-hour’s worth of encores from the Ricky Nelson, Dick Dale, Louis Jordan, Bill Doggett and Big Joe Williams songbooks. Zoot suits too.

However, Isaak and pack lose points for the tepid Yardbirds’ cover--easily the weakest track on the new album--the seemingly interminable d-double d-drum solo and the leader’s “because I can “ forays on harmonica and accordian. Sexy, funny and sporting an easily definable sound, Isaak will mostly likely be around for as long as there are bars with names like T. G.’s Voodoo Lounge.