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To say that 2004 was a banner year for veteran rocker Elvis Costello would be no understatement. Fresh off of touring behind his stirring 2002 rock album When I Was Cruel, in September of 2004, Costello released two acclaimed but very different albums, the rocking The Delivery Man and Il Sogno, a classical work.
Then last December, Costello capped off his impressive year with three Grammy nominations – including one for best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for the song “Monkey To Man” and best Rock Album for The Delivery Man.
When the winners were announced this past February, the veteran rocker was nowhere to be seen. To Costello, who was up against U2 in the song category and Green Day’s American Idiot for the best album honor, there was no point in attending the Grammys. Costello knew, he said during an interview at last month’s South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, TX, that he had no chance to beat that competition. “From where I was standing,” he said, “I was happier to be in a club with the Killers or the Gorillaz, or whoever they are and [skip] the madness for noble reasons, while the monolith that is U2 crushed us under their jack boot. “
That sort of practical outlook, laced with self-deprecating humor and a good deal of genuine humility, was frequently on display on Costello was quizzed in an open conversation by Bill Flanagan, a veteran music journalist and senior vice president at MTV, for about 75 minutes.
Forging New Nostalgia
During the wide-ranging interview, Costello, perhaps the most talented member of the first crest of punk / New Wave artists of the late 1970s, remarked that he no longer harbors any great hopes of having hit records. Instead, he said, he’s pleased that a core audience buys his records and enables him to tour as a headliner world-wide playing the kinds of shows he wishes – rather than being relegated to some nostalgia circuit trotting out a few hits as part of some package tour.
And for all the respect Costello has gained, not only for making some of the most memorable, intelligent – and downright entertaining – rock of the past 28 years, but for his non-rock collaborations with such luminaries as the Brodsky Quartet and Burt Bacharach, he also remarked at one point that he is fully aware there are millions of people who have no idea who he is or what his albums are named.
As Costello explained, he still loves the art of live performance, something his plans to play 200 shows this year would seem to prove. That enjoyment of the concert stage was also evident during Costello’s headlining set at La Zona Rosa in Austin. Joined by his stellar backing band the Imposters, Costello rollicked through a two-hours-plus set that featured most of the songs from The Delivery Man, a number of fan favorites (“Mystery Dance,” “Radio Radio,” “Pump It Up”), as well as a few songs that haven’t been regular parts of his live set in years – including “Blame It On Cain” from his debut album My Aim Is True and a fevered take on “Why Don’t You Love Me (Like You Used To Do)?” from his country album Almost Blue.
This sort of stirring performance is nothing new to fans who have seen Costello perform – either with his original backing band, the Attractions, or with The Imposters, which he formed during the making of When I Was Cruel.
The two backing bands share a pair of musicians – keyboardist Steve Nieve and drummer Bruce Thomas (no relation to current bassist Pete Thomas), while Davey Faragher (ex-Cracker) handles those duties in the Imposters. For the Athens show and only two others, David Hidalgo, the talented Los Lobos guitarist/ multi-instrumentalist, will replace Nieve, who’s in London for the initial recording sessions of his opera Welcome to the Voice. Costello is billing the unique group as the Pick-Ups.
The opening act is Sondra Lerche, a singer-songwriter from Norway recently relocated to New York. He released his second album, Two-Way Monologue last year; he said that he’s busy writing material for a new album and plans to play a few of the new songs during his opening set at the Classic Center.
Mutual Attraction
Costello discussed the Attractions and Imposters, explaining why, in spite of shared members, he considers each a very different unit. “I really do want to say straight out I understand people being sentimental about the Attractions,” he said. “The Attractions, I think, were far and away musically the best group of ’77 by a country mile. I’m not saying we made the best records, by any stretch of the imagination. There were some great records made quite often by people who couldn’t play at all. But that group was very, very good, it was extremely good right up until about 1982. Then it became tough.”
The toughness largely involved Costello’s rocky relationship with Bruce Thomas. And while the Attractions, which disbanded after the 1986 album Blood and Chocolate, did reunite eight years later to make two more albums, the disagreements with Thomas became the undoing of the band.
When Faragher joined Nieve and Pete Thomas on When I Was Cruel, Costello knew it was a far different unit than the Attractions. “The nine years in which we didn’t work together, that period of time between All This Useless Beauty and When I Was Cruel,” said Costello, “these guys are not sitting by the phone waiting for me to call. They’re doing other stuff. And the reason why the Imposters and the Attractions are different bands is because this vast amount of experience of the other members.
“The other key difference between the Imposters and the Attractions is the kind of player, the kind of musician that Davey Faragher is,” continued Costello. “And listen, this is not going to be an exercise in talking down somebody I’m well on the record of not getting along with, Bruce Thomas, the Attractions’ bass player. But he simply can’t play a groove. He’s a great inventive, melodic bass player in a kind of style, but you cannot find a solid groove on an Attractions record.
“The Attractions rhythm section was Pete Thomas and me on rhythm guitar. You listen to the Attractions records, there were like three guitar solos (total). Since we’ve come up with a conventional rhythm section, obviously that relationship changes. It gives Steve more freedom to do different things and me to do different things. Davey also is a great singer.”
WHO: Elvis Costello & the Pick-Ups, Sondre Lerche
WHERE: Classic Center Theater
WHEN: Wednesday, April 27
HOW MUCH: $35
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