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Elvis Costello: live under a rising full moon

Costello rewards his patient fans with some loud, "combo" music.
24 juni 2002, Chastain Park Amphitheatre, Atlanta (USA)

Tekst: Dave Weil

Publicatiedatum: 06 juli 2002

Elvis Costello wrapped up the spring portion of his U.S. tour at the outdoor Chastain Park Amphitheatre in Atlanta on June 24, 2002, under a rising full moon and an oppressive venue security. The former was cool, the latter not so.

Accompanying him were the Distractions: two-thirds of the Attractions plus ex-Cracker bassist Davey Faragher replacing Bruce Thomas. A newly-shorn Steve Nieve supplied the various keyboards, while Pete Thomas brought a drive and power not seen on the songs from Costello's latest album When I Was Cruel.

Squeezing 25 songs into an 11 p.m. curfew, he bookended his first and last albums by starting with 45 (off of the new album) and then following it immediately with Waiting For The End Of The World, which appeared on his debut My Aim Is True. By the time he finished with the usual current set closer, I Want You, he had played a satisfying selection of his meatier songs, avoiding tender moments such as Alison and I Want To Vanish but pulling out raveups like Uncomplicated and Lipstick Vogue. He performed How To Be Dumb, which is a Dylanesque critique almost to the level of its spiritual godfather, Like A Rolling Stone. Since it's a song that is fairly rare in concert these days, it was nice to hear it spit out from the stage. Tiny Steps was another somewhat rare song that was a pleasure to hear again.

As mentioned earlier, the new songs were delivered with a sense of drive and fervor rarely approached on the new album, mostly due to the muscular drumming of Pete Thomas, who infused Tear Off Your Own Head (It's A Doll Revolution) with an urgency that propelled the song into new territories. Steve Nieve, in his Maurice Worm personna, minimized the baroque elements that he is known for and reduced his contributions to a satisfying combination of garage rock and electronica slabs of sound, even using a theramin-like device and what appeared to be a Melodica at a couple of points. Costello experimented with some improvisational flourishes during a fusion of two songs from the new album, Dust 2... and ...Dust (making a nice, obscure pun on the phrase "dust to dust"), but for the most part, the songs were delivered with stripped-down arrangements that distilled them to an essential core.

The great thing about an Elvis Costello show is that, while there's a basic structure in the set list of any given portion of a tour, there's a great variety of songs available for the listener, and one never knows exactly what he might come up with, even if the listener attended the show the night before. The Atlanta show was no exception, though the curfew limited the concert to just under two hours, which is between two and eight songs (and 10–30 minutes) shorter than some of his other efforts. This tour has already offered more than 60 different songs, and he's only into the first part of the year, as he will be touring almost continuously though the end of the year. So there are plenty of surprises ahead for the faithful.

Costello's tour continues on to Japan and Australia, and European fans can see him at some of the big summer festivals. If you caught him earlier this year in Amsterdam, don't miss him this summer because the song selection continues to expand and the arrangements continue to evolve. And if you are in the U.S., have no fear: Elvis will return in October and who knows what he'll have up his sleeve.

Then, hopefully, Elvis' next stop will be at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony of 2003, which is his first year of eligibility. Wouldn't it be nice to see a Costello/Clash induction next March to follow the Ramones/Talking Heads one?

http://www.kindamuzik.net/live/elvis-costello/elvis-costello-live-under-a-rising-full-moon/1676/
Meer Elvis Costello op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/elvis-costello