Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets, The Komedia Bath, 12/02/2025

It was a cold and dark Tuesday February evening as I boarded the train for the short journey to Bath. I arrived an hour early as usual because I don’t trust the trains to be on time. I passed the time in this place called Eat a Pitta enjoying some middle eastern type spicy food. Then crossed the road when I saw the doors open at The Komedia. I have never been to a gig previously at this venue. It used to be a cinema. The last time I remember setting foot in this building was 1988 when me and Kim saw A Fish Called Wanda here. They have removed the seating downstairs leaving just the balcony as a seated area. I don’t like it as a music venue as much as my favourite Bath venue The Forum which has a beautiful interior and much more spacious, but I suppose it’s not fair to compare the two.

Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets came on stage promptly at 8.00. I’ve seen Nick quite a few times before, but only once with this band which was Glastonbury 2019. I love their retro twangy guitar sound which reminds me of the guitar groups of the early 60s like The Shadows or The Ventures. They play cheap guitars that I think are made in Korea, but they sound wonderful. They are just bass, two guitars and drums. Nick jokingly called the extrovert drummer Gringo Starr. Their gimmick is that they all wear these bizarre Mexican wrestling masks, so you never know what they look like. All Nick’s songs tend to be quite short, and they fairly ripped through them. The first song was So It Goes from Nick’s 1978 album Jesus Of Cool. This was followed by two songs from his excellent recent release Indoor Safari which were I Went To A Party and Raincoat In The River. Then Nick performed Lately I’ve Let Things Slide from 2001, and I Live On A Battlefield written by Paul Carrack. This song is from Nick’s The Impossible Bird album of 1994 which was when I realised how great Nick is. A neighbour Dave gave me a copy of that album and I loved every track. This was followed by three more songs from Indoor Safari which were Love Starvation, Jet Pac Boomerang, and Tokyo Bay.

Nick then left the stage, and we were treated to an Interlude with Los Straitjackets who played five tunes, but the only one I recognised was the theme to the Magnificent Seven. Nick returned and the evening got better and better. Trombone was followed by the poignant House For Sale, then Ragin’ Eyes from 1983s Abominable Showman, Without Love from 1979s Labour Of Lust album, and 12 Step Programme (To Quit You Baby). I thought one of the highlights of the evening was the recent Blue On Blue which he sang very emotionally. I filmed three songs, but they didn’t come out very well, Cruel To Be Kind was the best of them, but still a bit blurry, (See video below) Half A Boy And Half A Man was followed by my favourite Nick Lowe song (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love And Understanding? which is a message the whole world should hear, especially in these dark insane times. Most of Nick’s songs are upbeat rock and roll, or sad ballads about good love gone bad, but this song has a universal message.

In The Heart Of The City was the B-Side of Nick’s first single So It Goes on Stiff Records in 1976. This was followed by the brilliant classic I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock And Roll). Nick and the band then left the stage, but we knew they would be back. The first encore was Los Straitjackets performing a song which included parts of Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow which I recognised from the Beach Boys Party album but was originally by The Rivingtons. Nick then joined them for the Dave Edmunds & Rockpile song When I Write The Book. 

The second encore was just Nick on his own performing a very moving song you will know from Elvis Costello which was Alison. That brought a most enjoyable evening to a close. I was back on the pavement by 9.45 and in plenty of time to catch the 10.03 train back to Westbury. Thank you very much indeed to Los Straitjackets and the legend that is Nick Lowe.