“BSO/25!” is gonna be one helluva party.
The BRIAN SETZER ORCHESTRA—led by iconic guitarist, songwriter, vocalist and three-time Grammy-award-winner BRIAN SETZER—will celebrate their 25th anniversary in style with an exclusive landmark show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on August 2. Under the stars at the legendary venue where they’ve performed twice before, SETZER’s trademark guitar work and vocal stylings will be matched with his 19-piece orchestra’s rockin’ big-band horn arrangements, making for an unbeatable combination. Group tickets on-sale Feb 21, 2017, with artist pre-sale beginning May 2, 2017 and public on-sale May 7, 2017.
In their 25 years together, the BRIAN SETZER ORCHESTRA have released 14 albums (10 studio and four live). In 2016, they earned huge acclaim for their 13th Annual “Christmas Rocks!” tour. As Guitar Player magazine raved in December 2016: “the first guitarist ever to lead a bona fide big band, Setzer has created an ensemble that takes his two favorite genres of music to the next level—his Orchestra is the Earth, Wind & Fire of rockabilly, the Led Zeppelin of jump swing.” Elsewhere, the Santa Barbara Independent noted that “Setzer certainly proved that he’s still got it all–the material, the musicality, and the acrobatic showmanship.” (12/27/16)
“The music I play in the big band is rock n’ roll with a jazz influence,” says SETZER. “What keeps it fresh is the quality of the players in the band. Also a big part of keeping the big band fresh is the arrangements; writing the arrangement for 18-19 people is like writing a song within a song. It makes the song you might have heard many times sound new again.
The world-class Hollywood Bowl was an immediate choice for the BRIAN SETZER ORCHESTRA to commemorate their legacy. “Who doesn’t want to play the Hollywood Bowl in that beautiful setting in the hills,” says SETZER. “When the Hollywood Bowl was conceived, all music was acoustic, so to hear a big band in this setting is ultimate. This venue has a nice wooden stage. It just sounds amazing. The construction of the shell overhang provides excellent acoustics. And then, of course, when the lights come on in the last song, you realize…whoa, there’s 17,000 people out there!”
BRIAN SETZER belongs to an elite group of artists who’ve had three super successful phases of his career, from the Stray Cats, to solo albums, to BSO. The BSO show seamlessly encompasses music from all these phases. “It’s all about the set list,” he says. “A good set list has a lot of hills and valleys; it has to go up and down. I like it to kind of cover my career, I like it to start with some Stray Cats, because I love that kind of music with the big band behind it and of course some of the big band stuff that everybody knows, we had quite a few hits. But then I also like to cover some things I haven’t played in a long time.”
