Live Review: Brian Setzer Orchestra in Universal City, CA

Brian Setzer, in fine voice and slinging his trademark Gretsch guitar, brought an old-time variety-show vibe to the Los Angeles area's Universal Amphitheater on Saturday night (12/18).

After a few years of relatively low-profile recording and tour activity following the Stray Cats' early '90s breakup, Brian Setzer warmed to the concept of reaching farther back than '50s rockabilly to resurrect big-band orchestral arrangements for a new audience.

The project didn't immediately win a significant following. It took three albums spread across four years for the Brian Setzer Orchestra to see much return on Setzer's investment, striking gold in 1999 when clothing chain The Gap featured a Setzer Orchestra cover of Louis Prima�s "Jump, Jive and Wail" in a commercial. The commercial tapped into a burgeoning swing-dance revival of the time (part of which was documented in the 1996 hit film "Swingers").

Setzer has since turned his orchestra into a reliable franchise, generating new studio output, including 2002's "Boogie Woogie Christmas" collection, which has spawned an annual holiday tour.

A seasoned showman, Setzer runs the stage as part host, part conductor, part cheerleader and part band member. With a 13-piece horn section, drummer, upright bass and two '50s pinup-style backup singers, there's plenty to play off of.

True to the album that fueled their late-'90s breakout, the orchestra was tight and provided plenty of vaudevillian humor behind Setzer, pantomiming snow shovels with their horns in playfully choreographed segments. But while the horns were blowing, they were all business, perfectly synched around Setzer's creative charts.

Setzer himself was in fine form, brandishing a voice that, like Bonnie Raitt's, seems to become more seasoned and smooth with age. On the guitar front, Setzer has defined himself over the years with a mix of tasteful, jazzy chord progressions, lightning-fast runs and a one-of-a-kind tone. With his small army of Gretsch hollow-body guitars, Setzer runs the sonic gamut from shimmering fills to thick growls of tone. Truly a wall of sound created by a master of technique.

Highlights included a note-perfect rendition of "This Cat's On a Hot Tin Roof," a brilliant interplay of Nelson Riddle-flavored horn parts and rave-up guitar from 1998's "The Dirty Boogie" and a fiery re-working of the Stray Cats hit "Rock This Town."

"Town" closed an energetic rockabilly trio set that revisited some of Setzer's early hits in their original form, played with upright bass and drums in front of a large stage curtain. About midway through the song, the curtain raised while the full orchestra kicked in, taking the song into its reinvented big-band arrangement from "The Dirty Boogie" album. The effect was dramatic and clearly produced the desired reaction from the baby-boomer audience.