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Belligerent, addlepated, myopic, knock-kneed and obviously very much his own man, Elvis Costello is waking rock 'n' roll up from its 1970s pop music coma.
Costello is the twentyish, former computer programmer-or-something Cockney kid with horn-rimmed glasses who plays guitar and writes enjoyably rebellious songs that lie somewhere between "new wave" and punk rock music.
Introducing his song "about radio and how it isn't any good," Costello chided his nearly sold-out audience at Shea's Buffalo Theater Thursday night:
"If you stand up for this one, I think you're a bunch of ----s."
And of course half of the crowd stood up and cheered Costello's vitriolic valentine to the record industry, summed up with the sentiment that, "I want to bite the hand that feeds me, I want to bite it oh so badly ..."
Because behind his stage pose of sullen, recalcitrant contempt apparently is an OK guy.
"He was really nice when we met him in Louisville. He signed everybody's ticket stub. He's the only person now who writes good songs. You can follow him across the country and never be bored," said Greg Stout, 20, who has been doing just that.
Stout and his buddy, John Dodson, 25, both work in Dayton, Ohio, record stores and saved up their vacation and days off to drive from concert to concert in Dayton, Columbus, Louisville, Chicago and Buffalo before going back to work today.
They collect things such as Elvis' rare red vinyl promotion-only limited edition rendition of "Funny Valentine," which he handed out on Valentine's day.
Costello, who dresses in black shirt and stovepipe pants, skinny salmon tie, checked sportcoat and gold pumps, has a masculine, rough approach to singing, lyrics similar to Bruce Springsteen and gangly movements reminiscent of actor Gary Busey in the movie The Buddy Holly Story.
He likes small theaters such as the Shea's but he doesn't like people such as "the ---- -up in the balcony" who lobbed a couple firecrackers into the main floor. Costello warned the unseen demolitionist to stop throwing the fireworks or he would stop the show.
"You wouldn't want us to go home now, would you. Be a nice boy like you should be ... or (menacingly) we'll come up and get you ..."
Costello then went to work on "Lipstick Vogue" and an extended version of "Watching the Detectives." The singer and his keyboards-drums-and-bass trio, the Attractions, played for 50 minutes, selecting songs from Costello's earlier and current Armed Forces album: "The Beat," "This Year's Girl," "B Movie," "Accidents Will Happen," "Oliver's Army" and others.
Although he has been touring for months, Costello was in fine voice. He returned to the stage for a two-song encore beginning with "Pump It Up."
Opening for Costello were the Rubinoos, a competent four-man California rock band with a good sense of humor and specializing in standards such as the Beatles' "Please Please Me" and the Ventures' "Walk Don't Run."
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