Nick Lowe’s Quality Holiday Revue featuring Los Straitjackets

Wednesday, December 2, 2015 | 8:00 pm

Reynolds Industries Theater

Duke Performances ushers in the holiday season with British rock ’n’ roll legend Nick Lowe and Nashville-based surf rockers Los Straitjackets. Lowe, who achieved breakthrough success in the late ’70s with his Top 40 single “Cruel To Be Kind,” is equally decorated as a songwriter and producer; he was at the helm for classic albums by Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, and The Pretenders. In the twenty-first century he has re-emerged as a tender-hearted but sharp-tongued songwriter without equal.

Lowe first joined forces with Los Straitjackets for the collaborative holiday album Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection for All the Family, released in 2013 on Hillsborough’s Yep Roc Records. Hailed as “characteristically great” (New York Magazine) and “unimpeachably tasteful” (The Washington Post), the record combines original songs with Yuletide standbys and lesser-known gems by the likes of Ry Cooder and Ron Sexsmith. Los Straitjackets, wearing their signature Mexican wrestling masks, help Lowe bring irreverently classic cool to the end-of-year festivities, in a holiday show for grown-ups and children alike.