Boston Globe, Wed 1996-06-22
by Jim Sullivan
Review of Elvis Promo Tour at the Paradise in Boston 1996-06-20


Costello: This Year's Model is a Classic

Re-invention - sometimes subtle, sometimes radical - has been a steady part 
of Elvis Costello's evolution, ever since he shed the tag of "angry young man of
Britain's new wave" about 16 years ago. Two other things, related: He's become
far more loquacious - which is to say he's turned about 180 degrees from his
clenched-teeth nastiness and feedback-driven blast of yore - and he's become
more of a pure singer [italic]. If the emphasis was on the 2nd half of the
term "singer-songwriter", it is now split equally, to no one's loss.

New lyrical licks n' kicks include "You took the blossom off my youth and blew
it all to smithereens" from "Little Atoms" and "Although passion still
flickers / We never got into our knickers" from "Just About Glad", a song of an
unconsummated affair. The latter kicked off Costello's acoustic set at the
Paradise Monday night. [June 20th]
 
Bill Weld didn't issue a proclamation, but Monday was Elvis Day in Boston, in
celebration of his just-released album, "All This Useless Beauty". There was 
a live broadcast at WBCN's studios at noon; a half-hour, private music
biz/local retailer gig at the tiny Kendall Cafe at 2 PM; and a long-sold-out,
130 minute gig at the Paradise later that night, simulcast by WBOS. (An
interesting shift, there, in that 'BOS, a rare presence in clubland, got the 
simulcast, not El's longtime radio home, 'BCN. A spokesman for Warner says
the company is first pushing Costello at adult-alternative stations such as
'BOS, and then will take the album to alternative and rock radio.) 

Costello, who played to a packed house with Attractions pianist Steve Nieve,
will return with the full band to Harborlights Aug. 14. 

Costello's spare, intimate set was fashioned much like the Paradise show by
Kinks' Ray Davies last year. For this gig, part of a brief promotional tour,
Costello mixed song and chat, his rapier-like wit bringing touches of levity to
a fairly serious selection of songs.

Costello wasn't afraid to turn the guns on himself, alluding to a long-ago
Catholic upbringing aand noting it came from a time when "Phil Silvers was a
role model, not somebody I'm turning into." Costello also joked that he penned
a song for the "Evita"-era pregnant Madonna called "Couldn't You Keep That to
Yourself?" During the same song Costello served up hilarious imitations of the
first Elvis singing (as he might have, had he lived), Bruce Springsteen's "I'm 
on Fire" and Blondie's "Heart of Glass". There was also a musing about 
alt-rock look-alikes Alanis Morissette and Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters. 
[This was VERY funny, particularly the Elvis part.] 

This was, decidedly, listener-friendly Elvis, even if the bulk of the material
consisted of songs from the new album, and not familiar favorites. "I don't
know whether I told you yet, but I love everybody," Costello said, early on,
wryly sending up his past surliness. He kept returning to the love riff
throughout the show.

The musical emphasis on the new material worked - it's Costello's strongest
batch of songs in years, with many of them previously recorded by other 
artists.

They're clever, but uncluttered, emotionally resonant, mid-tempo, often somber
or pained. They're well suited to the grand piano-acoustic guitar format Nieve
and Costello employed. There was clarity, economy and punch. The convoluted 
Costello of "The Juliet Letters" was absent.

A new unrecorded song, composed (by phone) with Burt Bacharach, "God Give Me
Strength", had a grandiose sweep. Sang Costello, as Nieve's clusters of notes
cascaded around his voice: "Since I've lost the power to pretend/That we could
ever be happy in the end.../She was the light that I blessed/She took our last
chance at happiness.../God, give me strength." Another new one, "Unwanted
Number", gave rare dignity to young love and an ill-timed pregnancy, as well 
as the decision to end it. Sung Costello, from the women's point of view, 
"I won't give my love to an unwanted number."

Costello, looking geekily dapper in a vest, oversized shirt, glasses and
semi-goatee, dropped old faves like "[The Angels Wanna Wear My] Red Shoes",
"Oliver's Army", "Alison", and "Watching the Detectives" (the latter two
encores) along the way. A mid-set highlight was the relatively obscure, 
quietly incendiary "Just a Memory", where Costello fought the internal 
battle after a romantic bustup: "Losing you is just a memory/Memories don't 
mean that much to me". A nice try, yet he finds himself late at night lying 
awake in bed.

It was a hot night at the Paradise, figuratively and literally. It was also a
no-smoking night, at the artist's behest. Costello's wife, Caitlin, former
Pogues bassist, even whacked a guy over the head who didn't know the ground
rules to help make a point.