Slicer travelled to Belfast last night to hear the bespectacled Liverpudlian muso Declan Patrick MacManus who had the audacity to adopt the name of the original rock and roll icon. When he first rose to public attention in the 70's, Slicer didn't quite know what to make of this geeky guy billed as punk rock, who looked more like Buddy Holly, albeit with a load of attitude.
Complex settings for vids in them days...
Age has allowed him to leave behind the cringeworthy elements:
Although accompanied for much of his career by The Attractions, Costello has long since shaken off the 'new wave'/punk profile (Slicer thinks it was much more opportunist than ever being credible) and has moved comfortably across multiple genres, including R&B and jazz, and collaborated with a wide range of artists and songwriters - from Wendy James (of Transvision Vamp) to McCartney, Bacharach, Swedish soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, jazz pianist Marian McPartland, Allen Toussaint, T-Bone Burnett, Marc Ribot, Buddy Miller, and Leon Russell. He even provided a cover of Aznavour's She for the sound track to the London-based film, Notting Hill.
Last night's gig was a strictly solo affair in the 2000-seater Waterfront Hall. Apart from the odd bit of recorded backing, Costello's only company on stage was a bevvy of guitars, effects pedals (which he made too much use of) and a grand piano. He kicked off with Oliver's Army - one of his early hits and, appropriately for this gig, a song written in direct response to his first experience of Belfast. Another nice touch for a Belfast audience was a cover of Van Morrison's Jackie Wilson Said. The gig didn't get off to a strong start - possibly because it took EC a while to warm up, but it may in part have been the sound guys taking a while to strike the right balance - all the more notable, and perhaps less easy to forgive, with a solo act than with a band. However, as the night progressed, he just got better and better and delivered an uninterrupted 2 hours & 15 minutes of enthusiastic performance including multiple encores. Slicer heard punters complaining on the way into the gig that there was no interval "likely because he just wants to get it done, dusted, earn his dosh and get home." After 28 or more songs (number depends on what you call a song - some were medleys), and more encores than any gig Slicer has been at before, no-one was saying that on the way out.
The Belfast setlist can be found here. Costello managed to introduce variety by, at times, resuscitating his early new wave persona, belting out old hits; at others being the jazzy crooner; others the vaudevillian; sometimes stepping away from the mic and achieving sufficient volume in the waterfront seemingly unplugged; encouraging lots of audience participation in to-fro exchanges, including in Jackie Wilson Said, and in the great Pump It Up (which he played in response to Slicer's loud yell requesting it between encores - a request that was acknowledged from the stage). During one encore he took things completely left-field at the piano with lots of extraneous recorded noise and the live use of a bullhorn - all of which combined to create instantly a chaotic Waitsian feel - superb!
Perhaps the greatest tribute to Costello has been Elvis covering Elvis
;-) Download ELVIS SINGS ELVIS
Costello's influences have been diverse and his lyrics intriguing, if at times impenetrable. Take Bedlam:
I've got this phosphorescent portrait of gentle Jesus meek and mild
I've got this harlot that I'm stuck with carrying another man's child
The solitary star announcing vacancy burned out as we arrived
They'd throw us back across the border if they knew that we survived
And they were surprised to see us
So they greeted us with palms
They asked for ammunition, acts of contrition and small alms...
...Someone went off muttering, he mentioned thirty pieces
Easter saw a slaughtering, each wrapped in bloodstained fleeces
Then my thoughts returned to vengeance, but I put up no resistance
Though I seemed a long way from my home
It really was no distance
And I might recite a small prayer
If I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame
And found myself in bedlam
The surrealism of God's Comic (where the apostrophe in the title is placed to mislead) is reminiscent of psychedlic era Dylan, including its humour:
So there he was on a waterbed, drinking a cola of a mystery brand
Reading an airport novelette, listening to Andrew Lloyd-Webber's "Requiem"
He said, before it had really begun, "I prefer the one about my son"
"I've been wading through all of this unbelievable junk
And wondering if I should have given the world to the monkeys"
Now I'm dead, now I'm dead, now I'm dead, now I'm dead
And I'm going on to meet my reward
I was scared, I was scared, I was scared, I was scared
He might've never heard God's comic
Is he suggesting we should substitute fear of God for the notion that God (if He exists) has a sense of humour? I guess there's a time and a place. Death and judgement don't really seem material ripe for humour, except in the cathartic/escapist sense.
In any case, we could use some of his own performance (of a song by long-time collaborator Nick Lowe) in reply - here performed in association with Jakob Dylan:
Perhaps unsurprisingly there are multiple links to Dylan (senior) and those associated with him. Here a host of talent, including Larry Campbell (talented multi-instrumentalist who has travelled extensively with Dylan on his Never-ending Tour) join Costello on a cover of The Weight by The Band:
Here, Costello, Crow, and Sexsmith touch on the subject of death with Dylan's Ring Them Bells:
Pump It Up has often struck Slicer (U2's Get On Your Boots even more so) as being extremely derivative sonically of Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues. So he laughed loudly when he came across this medley, especially the finish:
Slicer is pleased to have been in the building with Elvis (and some other good company).
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