Review: Los Straitjackets

We’ve long heard tell of what amazing shows Los Straitjackets put on. SFist was thrilled to finally witness the wonder ourselves last Thursday at Slim’s. The pageantry included the World Famous Pontani Sisters and Kaiser George to spice up the lineup. Los Straitjackets describe themselves at “America’s Instrumental Rock and Roll Combo”, but it doesn’t really get at how hip their retro sound and attitude is. Wearing Mexican wrestling masks, self-styled saint straitjackets medallions, red turtlenecks and chucks and completely slaughtering Spanish via their stage banter, the Straitjackets make you fall in love with them one guitar solo at a time.

This tour was special since the Straitjackets shared the stage with the retro-burlesque-dance (but not quite naughty) stylings of the Pontani Sisters. The mostly male crowd LOVED these ladies. The teen hipsters behind us kept saying that they had died and gone to heaven, and we were a little worried that some of the older guys (the 50-something set was well represented) were going to have a coronary. But what can you expect from a rock show sponsored by a lingerie company? Kaiser George’s vocals added a nice touch to the Straitjacket’s instrumentals and proved that surf music is beloved even in Scotland. Bottom line, if you like surf-guitar, you’d have loved the show. If you’ve never heard surf guitar, there was not better way to turbo charge your holiday spirits.