Review of concert from 2002-09-29: Los Angeles, CA, Mayan Theatre - with Imposters
- Chris Klimek

 

Verily, Elvis is king.

Elvis Costello and the Imposters
The Mayan Theatre, Los Angeles
28 Sept. 2002

by Chris Klimek

Sunday night's show at L.A.'s unique Mayan Theatre was the best of the five times I've seen Elvis perform. He was quieter than usual tonight, generally refraining from speaking between songs. Even his usual rap introducing "Spooky Girlfriend" was cut short. Perhaps he was saving those golden pipes of his for the tunes, because there were quite a few of them -- 30 in all, 14 of which were not performed at either of the two gigs I saw previously on the 2002 tour. At the show I attended at Wolf Trap in Virginia in June, a narcoleptic audience of white-wine-sipping fakers sent Elvis home after fewer than two dozen songs with their too-polite behavior. Tonight, by contrast, was one of those magical nights when Elvis truly seemed not to want to go home. The set list was amazing; a back-catalogue free-for-all blending the expected almost-hits with a fine selection of rarities, including "Girls Talk," "My Mood Swings," and a stomping "I Can't Stand Up (For Falling Down)." The inclusion of "Party Girl" after the opening trio of uptempo numbers was a welcome addition that helped the pacing of the show enormously.

The seven songs Elvis performed from "When I Was Cruel" continued to hold their own tonight, even among much of Elvis' best material from the last 25 years. The mediocre "Tart" was a momentum-killer, but all of the other new songs were hot, especially "When I Was Cruel No. 2," which seemed to have much more impact as an encore number than it did when played earlier in the main set in previous shows.

A tender reading of "Almost Blue" ended the show on a somber note, serving as the perfect tonic to the paranoid loathing of "I Want You," which brought the proverbial house down in yet another jagged and brilliant rendition. Verily, Elvis is king.