Nick Lowe performing with Los Straitjackets in 2024
Nick Lowe has announced more 2025 tour dates in support of his first full-length album in eleven years, Indoor Safari. The concerts, announced on Nov. 12, will take place on the west coast following others that take place overseas. The album represents a return to early rock ‘n’ roll, with 12 songs, including originals, a couple of deep-cut covers, and refitted versions of tracks previously released in nascent form as singles. The title represents a culmination of his decade-long working relationship with the mysterious masked men and Yep Roc Records labelmates, Los Straitjackets (Eddie Angel/guitar; Pete Curry/bass; Chris Sprague/drums; Greg Townson/guitar). It arrived on September 13, 2024 and is available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here. Listen to many of the tracks below.
In the album’s liner notes, Emmy-winning writer Eli Attie (The West Wing, Billions, The Diplomat) calls Indoor Safari “nothing less than a free-roaming journey through the wilds of recorded sound.”
Watch the clip for the album’s lead track, “Went To A Party,” a certified fete-plate of sock hop soul and Lowe’s first official co-write with the Straitjackets
Originally written and scratch-recorded during sessions for Lowe’s 2001 album The Convincer, “Different Kind of Blue” did not surface in the U.S. until Yep Roc included it in an expanded 20th anniversary reissue of that album in 2021. Now, the song is newly recorded with a lyrical refresh and the gentle swinging support of Los Straitjackets.
Since releasing his last album, 2013’s Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection For All the Family, Lowe, who turned 75 on March 24, has toured three continents with Los Straitjackets, recording a series of rapid fire singles and EPs along the way. In time-honored fashion, he kept fine-tuning those songs and coming up with new ones. With help from Alex Hall “they all sound of a piece” now says Lowe, adding that with the old Straitjacket magic “hey, presto, you’ve got the sauce on it all.”
“We wanted to do some original songs, and no one’s going to come see an act where four of the five people onstage are wearing wrestling masks and expect to hear deep, meaningful verses of existential angst,” Lowe tells Rolling Stone. “People who come to see our shows want to hear these punchy, short tunes.”
Of “Jet Pac Boomerang,” Lowe notes: “I wrote this one while in Osaka, Japan in my hotel room while waiting for a taxi. It sounds like the pre-Beatles era of pop music that I grew up with. Ironically, when our engineer Alex Hall delivered the final mix to me, I was back in Osaka in the same hotel room as when I wrote the song years prior. I suppose everything comes back around much like the song title implies.”
Lowe made a surprise appearance at Newport Folk during Conan O’Brien’s festival-closing set, where he performed “Cruel to Be Kind” and “So It Goes” with Dawes.
Lowe has made his mark as a pioneer of pub rock, power pop, and punk rock and as a producer of Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, the Damned and the Pretenders. He has been a pop star with his bands Brinsley Schwarz and Rockpile, a stepson-in-law to Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, and is the writer behind hits including “Cruel To Be Kind” and “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding.”
[Lowe’s recording catalog is available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.]
Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets 2024-2025 Tour (Tickets for many of the shows are available here); alternatively, you can check here)
Dec 11 – Heights Theater – Houston, TX
Dec 14 – Kessler Theater – Dallas, TX
Dec 15 – Antone’s – Austin, TX
Feb 08 – Rockin’ Race – Malaga, Spain
Feb 10 – De La Warr Pavilion – Bexhill on Sea, UK
Feb 11 – Komedia – Bath, UK
Feb 12 – The Stables – Milton Keynes, UK
Feb 13 – The Garage – London, UK
Feb 16 – Glasgow Pavillion – Glasgow, UK
Feb 25 – Troubadour – Los Angeles, CA*
Feb 26 – Troubadour – Los Angeles, CA*
Feb 28 – Great American Music Hall – San Francisco, CA*
Mar 01 – Uptown Theatre – Napa, CA*
Mar 02 – Sweetwater Music Hall – Mill Valley, CA*
Mar 04 – Mississippi Studios – Portland, OR*
Mar 05 – Mississippi Studios – Portland, OR*
Mar 07 – Tractor Tavern – Seattle, WA*
Mar 08 – Tractor Tavern – Seattle, WA*
Mar 09 – Biltmore Cabaret – Vancouver, BC*
* Announced on Nov. 12
Nick Lowe Indoor Safari Tracklist
Went To A Party (Lowe, Angel, Curry, Sprague, Townson)
Love Starvation (Lowe)
Crying Inside (Lowe)
A Quiet Place (Bell, Meade)
Blue On Blue (Lowe)
Jet Pac Boomerang (Lowe)
Tokyo Bay (Lowe)
Trombone (Lowe)
Different Kind of Blue (Lowe)
Raincoat In The River (Schroeder, Kaye)
Lay It On Me Baby (Lowe)
Don’t Be Nice To Me (Lowe)
Related: Our Album Rewind of Lowe’s 1979 release, Labour of Love
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