| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| ramona |
Posted - 02/28/2004 : 09:05:49
Don't know if there are any fans of his here but I am a fan by proxy (a good friend of mine loves him as much as I love Frank. I like to say Elvis is "her Frank") and I saw him for the fourth time last night. He played at the Wang Center in Boston with Steve Nieve and the Brondsky Quartet, I think it was my favorite of his shows that I have seen. If anyone who likes him gets the chance to see this show, definetly go! He ended with a lovely cover of Dark End of the Street which he stepped away from the mic to sing, just projecting the power of his voice through the room. It was very cool.
Anyway, here is a review. Humor me.
Costello has sweetest punch -- still
By Joan Anderman, Globe Staff, 2/28/2004
The prognosis for Angry Young Men is never good. They die, or disappear into the maw of middle age, or, most horrible of all, keep at it. From a less artful punk, the vicious sentiments and paranoid delivery of Elvis Costello's early albums might have suggested a prime candidate for a bad ending. His songs were mean and he looked like a brainy time bomb. It turns out that's exactly what he was: a literate and distinguished songwriter who exploded in every musical direction.
Costello's two-hour concert at the Wang last night spanned his 27-year recording history, stretching back to the venomous ska-noir of "Watching the Detectives" and including many of the languid, lovely pieces from last year's "North," his 20th album of new material. It's hard to think of another artist who could command a stage while toggling with reckless abandon between rock tunes and torch songs. Or one who would venture to replace the raucous brawl of a rhythm section with the delicate pluck and velveteen whirl of a string quartet. Costello succeeds because he hasn't changed. The thing that fed the creative fires of his cranky youth -- a brilliantly unlikely mash of advanced craft and raw passion -- is the same stuff that fuels his ambitious new music.
Costello threw the fans a few bones out of the gate, opening the show with "45," "Accidents Will Happen," "Home Truth," and "Suit of Lights." Longtime pianist Steve Nieve's ornate, baroque fills on the grand piano and psychedelic melodica moved in odd and often delirious counterpoint to Costello's nuts-and-bolts guitar thrashing. They rocked, elegantly.
When the Brodskey Quartet emerged for the first of several chamber music minisets, the ambience turned gloriously avant garde. The quartet kicked out the punches -- no joke -- on "Rocking Horse Road" with a wild and complicated arrangement. They careered through a supple Sgt. Pepper's-style accompaniment on "My Mood Swings," from the "Big Lebowski" soundtrack, and a cover of Randy Newman's "Real Emotional Girl." The sound of Costello's cracked warble surfing the perfectly burnished waves of cello and violin was more than gorgeous; it was downright moving.
The lengthy sections devoted to music from "North" felt, well, lengthy. The pieces are slow and intense, drenched in great intimacy and admirable style, but entirely without hooks. During those stretches it felt more like one was watching Costello relive his changes of heart than perform for an audience. A man of few spoken words, he saved them all up for an extended monologue in the middle of "God's Comic," a demented Tin Pan Alley rocker that imagines heaven, Costello explained, as a VIP lounge in a bad nightclub in 1985 where "Hungry Like the Wolf" plays over and over again. A round of stellar Bush-and-Cheney-bashing abounded, followed straightaway by an epic, two-man stand on "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding?" It didn't get any better, or more poetic, or more musical, than that.
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"Music does not drag me down. Music lifts me up." - Frank Black |
| 5 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| peter radiator |
Posted - 02/29/2004 : 16:43:55
My girlfriend and I (both diehard Frank fans by the way) travelled to Nashville to catch the first of the three USA shows with The Brodsky Quartet.
We've seen him several times before both with full band and in the duo format with Steve, and there were few surprises as far as that goes. The quartet played great (they had been in town for a few nights practicing), and Elvis was in good voice and good spirits, but the crowd was restless and noisy.
I'm so fucking sick and tired of people who act like theatre or concert hall show carries the same import or requires the sam demeanor as a rowdy club gig.
They're two very different things.
This was essentially a night of chamber music, with a few brief nods to EC's rock records thrown in for good measure. Most of these stuffy fuckers talked, fidgeted and coughted through ALL of the quiet/newer numbers and cheered wildly whenever he played a "Greatest Hit" like "Peace Love and Understanding."
I thought in Nashville of all towns and at The Ryman Auditorium of all places they would be a bit more supportive and sympathetic, but that was not the case. Some folks actually screamed and shouted out requests and other sundry nonsense while he was singing accapella.
I don't see how he regains his composure through rude shit like that.
Ah well... I suppose I'm grumpy.
Glad you got to see a good performance - and I hope the corwd was nicer than the one we sat with.
By the way - during his fifth or sixth song, i noticed that the chord progression was very similar to The Dark End of The Street (I'm very familiar with it as my new band just finished learning it a few weeks ago), and I thought to myself that with Costello's known penchant for American soul music, it'd be great if he tried to tackle that one - especially in Nashville near where the osng was composed.
What a wild surprise to have him end the show with that same extended and stunning off-mic version that he appears to be continuing on with. As far as the audience went, the only redeeming moment of the night was when he encouraged a call and response sing-along on the tail end of the tune, and whereas you usually hear a mass of mediocre voices chiming in, since it's Nashville, there were lots of SERIOUS vocalists in the crowd, and a few of them started belting out these crazy high harmonies as loud or louder than Elvis! It was really funny, and he seemed taken aback but obviously pleased by it.
~ Peter Radiator
"Real music is out there and real people are making it." ~ Webb Wilder |
| jimmy |
Posted - 02/28/2004 : 18:17:10
I was lucky enough to see him last summer at Lupo's in Providence but the only bad thing was (I had read he's very sensitive about second-hand smoke) there was no smoking, "at the request of the performers". |
| Cheeseman1000 |
Posted - 02/28/2004 : 11:04:36
I like 'ska-noir'. I'll have to remember that one.
 "I joined the Cult Of Boni/Get Off My Trolley!" |
| ramona |
Posted - 02/28/2004 : 11:01:49
Yes, he did. He did such a great riff in it about Bush (as it says in the review). One part was about seeing Dick Cheney at an "All You Can Eat" buffet and Elvis says he's worried b/c if Cheney drops dead then "there will be no one to run the country".
Also, one of the last things he said to the audience as he left the stage was "No matter what you do in November, you've got to vote! You've got to vote! You've got to vote!" WORD, Elvis.
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"Music does not drag me down. Music lifts me up." - Frank Black |
| IceCream |
Posted - 02/28/2004 : 10:51:33
Wow.
When I saw this thread, I thought immediately of "God's Comic", as it is one of my all-time favurite songs.
I was just about to ask "Did he play God's Comic"?
Subsequently, I read the bottom paragraph. He DID play "God's Comic". Amazing.
 Join the Cult of Pi - It's just 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097.... |
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