Review of concert at LA, CA, Wiltern Theatre on 1999-06-01
Elvis Costello & Steve Nieve
- Tomm Carroll [TommC@fox.com]

 

Elvis Costello

Wiltern Theatre
June 1

by Tomm Carroll

Displaying confidence, humor and a heretofore unexhibited vocal prowess, Elvis Costello turned in an absolutely crowd-pleasing performance at the first of two nights at the Wiltern Theatre. So much so that no one in the house could possibly disagree when he sang 'I Hope You're Happy Now.'

Buoyed by the still-smoldering buzz of his Painted From Memory collaboration with Burt Bacharach last fall, not to mention his seemingly non-stop appearances on movie music compilations (indeed, the new Austin Powers film soundtrack, featuring Elvis and Burt's retro-trip back to 'I'll Never Fall in Love Again,' was released the day of this show), Costello's concert was a sell-out. But only in the sense of tickets; he remains an iconoclast, albeit one who is not afraid to revisit both the well-known and the more obscure material from his considerable canon.

The two-hour, 20-minute performance adopted the format of the two-man shows Costello and longtime keyboardist Steve Nieve undertook three years ago. Only this time, the set list consisted of generous amounts of Costello-Bacharach tunes, the venue was bigger and Costello's voice has matured enough to project effectively in the larger hall -- even sans microphone, as on the final number, 'Couldn't Call It Unexpected #4.'

The 30-song set included bookends to Costello's career -- from the first song he ever recorded, the pop nugget 'Radio Sweetheart' (complete with audience singalong), to an unrecorded Costello-Nieve composition, the lovely 'You Lie Sweetly' -- as well as tunes from virtually every period in between. Among the many high-points were the simply stunning 'I Still Have That Other Girl,' the sardonic 'God's Comic' including some mid-song shtick (Elvis needs to work on his impression of his musical namesake, however), the electric guitar-fueled 'Watching the Detectives' which incorporated instrumental interplay between Elvis and Steve before it deconstructed into a dub version of itself, and the surprising 'Waiting for the End of the World' featuring a delightful diversion into Van Morrison's 'Gloria.'

The half-dozen songs performed from Painted From Memory, including the soaring masterpiece and penultimate number 'God Give Me Strength,' all held up remarkably well with only piano and sometimes acoustic guitar accompaniment, which merely added to the intimacy of the lost love-themed lyrics. It's a testament to the songwriting craft that these pieces still thrive without the ornate orchestration. But then, when one of the co-writers is Elvis Costello, you couldn't call it unexpected.