Alejandro Escovedo’s Thursday CD-release show at the venerable Continental Club in Austin was as much about celebrating the 57-year-old Hep-C survivor’s career-defining album Real Animal as it was about honoring the Continental, a 51-year-old venue that just this week gained designation as a historical landmark.

Shortly after midnight on the first of back-to-back nights, Escovedo, ever dapper in a pinstripe suit, began his set for the 193-capacity crowd with “Put You Down.” It was a slow-building, curious opener for the six-piece considering it wasn’t from the scorching new album, but it nonetheless set the tone for the forthcoming dynamic interplay between the three-headed guitar section and strings duo comprising cello and violin.

Soon enough, Escovedo showcased what the people came for: deafening new tracks like “Real As An Animal” (which he noted was homage to Iggy Pop) and “People (We’re Only Gonna Live So Long),” its lyric “We still got time/But never quite as much as we think” ostensibly a nod to both his late-blooming career and the club he first started playing nearly three decades ago.

Set List:
Put You Down
Always A Friend
Everybody Loves Me
Sister Lost Soul
Chelsea Hotel ‘78
Swallows of San Juan
Rosalie
Sensitive Boys
People (We’re Only Gonna Live So Long)
Chip ‘n’ Tony
I Was Drunk
Real As An Animal
Castanets

Encore
Smoke
All the Young Dudes
Beast of Burden

[Photo: Todd V. Wolfson]