Review of concert at 1999-06-23: Vienna, VA, Wolf Trap Filene Centre
Elvis Costello & Steve Nieve
- Oz Geier [ocgiii@hotmail.com]

 

Elvis Costello/Steve Nieve

Filene Center at Wolf Trap Farm Park

Wednesday June 23, 1999

By Oz Geier

Memo to E.C.: Elvis-please open all of your shows with ‘Alison’. I’m tired of perpetually having to hear an air-headed bimbo sit behind me at your shows, and bitch about how much each song currently being played sucks, and inquire of her equally dim-witted friend(s) with her when you will get around to playing it. In full voice. So that everyone around her hears her. So we are made fully aware that that is the song she came to hear. To the exclusion of all others. -Oz-

That taken care of, to the show. A cheerful Elvis Costello performed his first-ever show at the Filene Center to a receptive, near-capacity crowd of mostly thirty and forty-plus-somethings. Clad in his trademark black suit, with his rapidly thinning hair cropped close to his skull, Costello and the Attraction, keyboardist Nieve, performed for exactly two and half hours, serving up ample helpings of new material with forays into his past, both distant and recent.

Opening with ‘Why Can’t a Man Stand Alone?’ from 1996’s ‘All This Useless Beauty’ Costello demonstrated a confidence in the ballad style lacking in most rock artists. Abandoning the frenetic pacing of his early years, Costello clearly seemed to enjoy savoring the material presented. Many of the more recent compositions performed, specifically eight co-written by Costello and Burt Bacharach for last year’s ‘Painted From Memory’ showcased a maturity of both temperment and voice, proven by both his introductions to, and delivery of them.

Reworkings of songs from his earliest albums provided a glimpse into the songwriting craft, and demonstrated their durability. Highlights included Girl’s Talk, (I Don’t Want To) Chelsea, Little Triggers, Temptation, (The Angels Want to Wear My) Red Shoes, and Talking in the Dark, which gave way to a piano flourish resembling a Chopin polonaise, which Nieve delivered with great enthusiasm and skill.

Fortunately for long time fans, Costello has not grown embarassed of any of this material, nor grown tired of performing it. In fact, he has created a body of work which allows his performances not to have to rely on any one segment of his output to satisfy his audience, despite his artistic development, and industry-driven musical demands.

Representing what could be argued as his strongest period (1982-1985), Costello peppered the evening’s offerings with Man Out Of Time, Everyday I Write The Book, Indoor Fireworks, The Long Honeymoon, Inch By Inch, Almost Blue, and I Want You.

Costello was more selective in his choices from the past ten years, and included three (Pads, Paws and Claws, Veronica, and Shallow Grave) written in collaboration with Paul McCartney, and You Lie Sleeping, a Nieve-penned composition, for which Costello supplied lyrics (a CD length release of Nieve/Costello compositions is rumored in the works).

Just under half of the songs (14) were performed as ‘encores’, a somewhat tedious practice Costello seems to indulge in, whereby the audience member is forced to ‘give it up’ for just ‘one more’ after ‘one more’, leaving many to pray for the mercy of the house lights and recorded music to follow. But few would discard what was included as unnecessary. Costello’s movie soundtrack contributions of late, She, a Charles Aznevour tune from Notting Hill, the Bacharach/David nugget I’ll Never Fall In Love Again, from Austin Powers II (etc.), and God Give Me Strength, from Grace of My Heart (the song that first brough E.C. and Bacharach together) provided little contrast given the limitation of piano and guitar/voice, and threatened an anti-climax.

Closing the show with Couldn’t Call It Unexpected #4, Costello took a cue from his pal Tony Bennett, and sang it unamplified. And, although Bennett is of such voice that he could probably have been heard by the pilot of the helicopter which chose that very moment to pass overhead, Costello is not. However a surprisingly silent audience was treated to his most intimate interaction of the evening.