Description
Stray Cats – Rocked This Town: From LA to London – Compact Disc
Six-panel Digipak.
Recorded live during Stray Cats’ 40th Anniversary Tour
Stray Cats’ Rocked This Town: From LA to London is a live album released on September 11, 2020 via Surfdog Records / Mascot Label Group. Rather than being a random “best live tracks” grab bag, it’s tied directly to the band’s 40th anniversary reunion period: Brian Setzer, Lee Rocker, and Slim Jim Phantom regrouped in 2019, released their comeback studio album 40, and toured heavily—this release documents that era with a setlist that’s basically a career-spanning show built for longtime fans and first-timers alike.
A key detail: this album pulls together 23 tracks recorded during the band’s 40th Anniversary Tour, aiming to capture what the Stray Cats are actually famous for in real life—tight musicianship, speed, swing, and that rockabilly snap that feels like it could fly off the rails but never does. The title is also a good summary of their story: an American band that initially found its breakthrough by relocating to the UK scene (hence the “LA to London” framing), then helped drive a full rockabilly revival that fed straight into later punk/psychobilly and roots-rock movements.
Setlist-wise, it leans hard into the songs people come for, while also showing how broad their catalog is onstage. You get signature early material like “Runaway Boys” and “Stray Cat Strut,” plus deeper cuts and instrumentals that highlight Setzer’s guitar identity (including showpiece moments like “Cannonball Rag” and surf-adjacent choices such as “Misirlou”). It also includes at least one track from the reunion album 40—the live version of “Cat Fight (Over a Dog Like Me)”—which is a nice “this isn’t only nostalgia” marker in the track flow.
Commercially, it performed like a successful late-career live release in a niche that still buys physical: it registered on the UK Official Charts in multiple categories (album sales/physical/vinyl listings show one-week chart appearances), which is notable for a 2020 live album by a band whose classic run peaked decades earlier. More importantly, as a listen, it’s the kind of live record that works because the Stray Cats were always built like a live act: three players, no filler, and a repertoire that’s basically designed to prove that rock ’n’ roll swing and punk energy are the same engine with different clothing.
Brand new, never played and still in the factory plastic
Track Listing
Cat Fight (Over A Dog Like Me)
Runaway Boys
Too Hip, Gotta Go
Double Talkin’ Baby
Three Time’s A Charm
Stray Cat Strut
Mean Pickin’ Mama
Gene & Eddie
Cry Baby
I Won’t Stand In Your Way
Cannonball Rag
Misirlou
When Nothing’s Going Right
(She’s) Sexy + 17
Bring It Back Again
My One Desire
Blast Off
Lust ‘N’ Love
Fishnet Stockings
Rock This Town
Rock It Off
Built For Speed
Rumble In Brighton
