Review of concert at Milano, Teatro Nuovo on 1999-04-26
Elvis Costello & Steve Nieve
- dannyg <dannyg@enjoy.it>

 

Elvis Costello and Steve Nieve at Milano, Teatro Nuovo

26 April, 1999

Review by dannyg

 

Elvis definitely has a soft spot for Italy (he studied Italian whilst living in Firenze for a while) as it was here, in February 98, that he started the touring adventure with Steve Nieve, playing opera houses around Italy. The success from the shows coupled with the release of 'Painted From Memory', the truly inspired album from mssrs Costello and Bacharach, has led Elvis and Steve to all the corners of the world and now back full circle to Milano.

The full house tonight reflects admirably the critical and popular success of the last year.The intimacy of those shows last year where Elvis leant heavily on the musicianship of Steve Nieve to conduct the showcase, has been replaced with a supremely confident, almost theatrical E.C., able to convey a greater depth of emotions than ever before. No longer the 'man out of time', these shows reflect the fact that E.C. feels he's at the pinnacle of his artistic career. It's simply a joy to watch him and his faithful partner, the genial Nieve who now has room to wander inside the songs, giving them new assertiveness, his instinctive playing capturing the emotions that engulf the theatre's throng. You can tell that they've had fun going through the back catalogue, re-discovering lyrics and melodies and experimenting with them. Thus renditions of 'Inch By Inch', 'Baby Plays Around', 'Chelsea' and 'Alison' are demanding in their imposition to be heard. Mixed in are the E.C. and Burt tracks which work so well in this format, 'Darkest Place' and 'This House Is Empty Now' especially reaching into the depths of your soul with Elvis' voice being so powerful yet graceful.

But for Costello and the Attractions fans like myself, the most endearing thing is to see Elvis and Steve having fun up there on stage. Elvis speaking to the crowd in (a fair) Italian, replying to joking hecklers, introducing 'Toledo' as a song where he and Burt fought over the black notes and white notes on the piano to get it right, remarking it was not like 'Ebony and Ivory' at all; the almost vaudeville rendition of 'God's Comic' with anecdotes; Steve singing backing vocals to 'Red Shoes'???

I first saw Elvis Costello and the Attractions at the Dominian Theatre in London during the 'Armed Forces' tour and their brilliance then was inspired by the 'angry young men' syndrome that was synonymous with Elvis. Now Elvis seems no longer angry but inspired, dedicated, ardent in getting you to think about his lyrics, to be moved by his music. I've seen Elvis come and go in these 20 years; I can tell you he's back;Go see him!