Review of concert at 1999-07-02: Montreux, CH, Auditorium Stravinski (Montreux Jazz Festival)
Elvis Costello & Steve Nieve
- Marcella Meloni [marcius@tiscalinet.it]

 

MONTREUX JAZZ FESTIVAL - SWITZERLAND - 2 JULY 1999

For those who never had the chance to go to Montreux I would recommend to go especially for the Jazz Festival in July, a wonderful place, sunny weather, people from all over the world ready to have fun. Jazz is no longer the only kind of music you can find in the festival program, it's been taken as a name because it is a kind of "label", a way to identify the world famous festival.

This year for the opening night Elvis Costello was scheduled on the 2nd of July along with the Alphom Academy of Switzerland, Charles Lloyd and Carly Simon. I do not spend words for the artists preceding EC except for the great saxophonist Charles Lloyd who performed "God Give Me Strength" introducing the song with "I was driven here with a young brilliant man, I don't know what he will sing later tonight. I just start with an arrangement of one of his last song". Very interesting jazzy version of GGMS.

The Stravinski Auditorium is known as one of the 3 top concert halls in the world speaking of its acoustics. Everything in the hall is made of pear tree wood, two large screen are suspended beside the stage.

Everything was late in the program and at 00,45, Elvis and Steve made their appearance on the stage, always smiling, in very good shape. Not all the public was there to see Costello. Consider that it was a sold out night most of all because it was the opening night that's why part of the public left the auditorium after the first 5 songs. That was good in a way because I could reach the central 3rd row (it was impossible to sit in the first row considering the big camera car from the Swiss TV shooting the entire show), secondly because the selected public was really motivated to respond to Elvis jokes particularly in a very good mood (he said thank you in 3 languages "to cover all the country languages").

"What's Her Name Today" remains one of my favourite tunes live and on CD. I was so glad to hear it once again and it gave me the strength to get a seat in the third row passing over the security guys. I was so glad also to realise that Elvis included a few songs which I did not have the chance to listen to during the couple of concerts of the Lonely World Tour I saw. He did not let the public sing the Chelsea part, he sung it all alone, I think he could feel that the public was not prepared yet to follow him, but the enthusiasm was growing song after song, "Radio Sweetheart/Jackie Wilson Said", "Inch By Inch", "Red Shoes" and of course "God's Comic" were the tunes for which EC requested more participation. God's Comic was really great. Almost at the end of the song Elvis just started shouting out "Turn the lights off, I said Turn the lights off!" everything went dark as the only sound we could hear was EC laughing in a mephistophelic way, his face was lighted intermittently, it was so cool!

My impression was that the show had to be shorter because the presenter with a mic in his hand was ready to get out on the stage after the first encore and because Elvis said, "As usual we are late, do you want more????" The audience was all for him.

"Couldn't Call It Unexpected #4" was really funny, Elvis just invited the public to get closer to the stage and that was a reason for the guys working with the camera cars to panic, waving desperately to the public to stay away from the stage, but Elvis did not care about the cameras and laughing he continued to ask the public to come closer, of course he won. The atmosphere was so intimate, I would have wanted him to go ahead for days...

It was almost 3 o'clock in the morning when Elvis said "Thanks, merci, danke, grazie... goodnight and enjoy the rest of the festival!!"

THAT was my festival, and I did enjoy it!