Review of concert at 1999-06-23: Vienna, VA, Wolf Trap Filene Centre
Elvis Costello & Steve Nieve
- Stephen McGowan [zub@bellsouth.net]
Elvis Costello and Steve Nieve at Wolf Trap Filene Center, Vienna Va
06-23-1999: I'll Never Fall In Love AgainNattily dressed all in black, and starting almost on time, the first few lines of "Why Can't A Man Stand Alone" immediately showed that Costello meant business tonight. They whipped into "Man Out Of Time", and a crazed "Talking In The Dark" ending with a frenzied Steve Nieve-cum-Mozart freak-out. The 6,000 or so Wolf Trap patrons were in for a treat this night of the Lonely World tour.
My wife mentioned something to me once that basically set Mr. MacManus as the voice of our generation. I must say it is very true for myself and I'm sure most of the crowd tonight, all of us following Elvis in one way or another since the heady days of 1977. This is an artist who most of us have grown up with; his material been there as the soundtrack to our lives, so to speak. Here at the Filene Center Elvis gave us a little bit of everything, and then a little bit more.
Tonight's two hour and forty-five minute set, including four encores, spanned thirty-five songs covering almost every Costello LP. The bulk of the material came from the "Painted From Memory" LP written with Burt Bacharach, and generally the live versions of these songs were stunning. I have a friend who has complained that he doesn't like Costello's material when he collaborates with others. He points to "Painted From Memory" and "The Juliet Letters" as examples of Elvis reaching too far. He opines that Declan's material is better when he writes it all himself. The show tonight was a brilliant illustration of how much collaborative efforts have helped Costello to grow and mature as an artist and an entertainer. Admittedly, "The Juliet Letters" is my personal worst as far as E.C. is concerned, I think it is pretentious and I don't listen to it. Still I admire the man for learning to read and write music and completing the project; it's a bit like teaching yourself to be a painter of frescos. And I think his work with a certain Mr. McCartney from Liverpool was quite nice thank you very much.
The "Painted From Memory" material, stripped of the 70's production, flugelhorns, backing singers, harps and the like, absolutely shined. The emotional impact of Elvis' singing and wordsmith in songs like "Toledo", "What's Her Name Today", "Painted From Memory", and "This House Is Empty Now" could not be denied. It is indeed a lonely world, and Costello's charting of this boy-cheats, boy-loses, boy-can't-live-without girl song cycle is dead-on. The sad stories of these songs open up before you; the sophisticated pop of Bacharach is a great challenge for a traditionalist like Mr. MacManus, and at Wolf Trap he rose to the occasion.
His secret weapon, of course, is none other than the trained-at-the-Royal Conservatory Mr. Steve Nieve. Nieve's arrangements of the "Painted From Memory" material made you completely forget about the nostalgic production on the recordings. His whisper-to-a-scream treatments of many songs absolutely hit the spot. He even made lesser material like "Long Honeymoon", with its' Mancini-meets Italian spy film kitsch, seem positively regal. A new arrangement of "Temptation" was a highlight, as was his playing on "All This Useless Beauty" and the set closer "In The Darkest Place".
I have another friend, who, upon seeing E.C. perform "She" on The Late Show Monday night, implored me not to go to see the concert in Virginia. He obviously felt that Costello was still on some kind of "The Juliet Letters" trip, what with the T.V. string section and all. I don't think he knew Declan was singing an old Charles Anzavour song, or that he's on both the "Notting Hill" and "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" soundtracks. Wednesday night at Wolf Track, Elvis played both "She", and "I'll Never Fall In Love Again". They both helped underscore the point that E.C. himself is truly the biographer of the lonely world. His songs in general paint the memories of long, lost, forbidden, doomed, broken love. Lonely folks in a lonely world. This is one of the reasons his songs resonate so well: we've all been there, we are there, and we can relate. I can only tell my friend that the power and persuasion Elvis and Steve brought into their performance was nothing but astounding.
A new MacManus/Nieve tune called "You Lie Sweetly" was offered, and foreshadowed yet another interesting direction for the Elvoid. This tune seemed a bit less pop and darker, more classical tinged. It was a short one so watch this space.
In the end Costello truly is "the voice". He was able to juggle presenting his new material with giving the drunks on the lawn their obligatory "Red Shoes", and "Pump It Up". He played relative obscurities like "Girls Talk", "Talking In The Dark", and "Radio Sweetheart", the latter turned into a crowd sing-along. He showed us his pop jewels of "Alison", "Veronica", and "Everyday I Write The Book", and backhanded us with "God's Comic", and an exceptional "I Want You". Elvis managed to straddle the line between important artist and eager to please entertainer. He seemingly gave everyone what they wanted. "God Give Me Strength" was a powerful closer to the fourth encore, followed by "Couldn't Call It Unexpected #4", played without a microphone for the vocal or P.A. for the piano. Elvis belted the song out accapella to a hushed, rapt audience. For a minute I imagined the beloved entertainer clowning about in the music halls of old. For a few seconds, a helicopter chopped by, drowning out E.C.'s faint voice. He pointed upwards and shrugged his shoulders, the crowd laughed and roared, then the helicopter flew off. Elvis continued the song to an absolutely pin-drop quiet crowd. He screamed goodnight and was gone, off to another stop on the lonely world. I'll never fall in love again.