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"Are you ready for Elvis Costello?" was the question the UVM concert bureau had been asking Burlington for three weeks.
"Is Elvis ready for Burlington?" would have been more appropriate.
The New Wave's most popular rocker seemed taken aback by the standing ovation that greeted him Tuesday night at Patrick Gymnasium.
Turning his back to the crowd, one could see traces of a smile playing on his usually scowling face. That smile would appear again as Elvis presented his views on life and its living.
The 70-minute set had much of the punked-up crowd dancing on the seats. When an over-anxious security crew tried to settle part of the audience, Elvis chided "These people are tired already, they paid good money for their seats, and they want to make sure that they sit in them. Sit and watch Elvis."
The section was back on its feet. Participatory rock!
Costello and his band, the Attractions, gave good reason to participate. Drummer Bruce Thomas, and bass guitarist Pete Thomas led listeners along with a powerful beat. Guitarist Costello and keyboard player Steve "Naive" Nasson played structured, often bright melodies recalling everyone from the Beatles and Beach Boys to Bruce Springsteen.
Unfortunately, as often happens at Patrick, the keyboards and vocals were lost in the sheer volume of the rest of the music. Sad, too, because the lyrics are the most important part of Costello's music.
Costello sees himself as leader of a new music with a new message. "Follow me," he sang in one of the six new songs offered. "I will not burn," he repeated over and over in "Two Little Hitlers," as he glowed a brighter and brighter red from the symbolic lighting.
Elvis' basic Me-versus-Them philosophy was best stated in "Lipstick Vogue," a song from his second album, This Year's Model. He offers himself up as the one-in-a-million answer to the lies and falseness of most of today's rock music. And he sees himself put down for being that different answer. The constant foes tell him, "You got no feelin'," a reference to the distant coldness of most of his songs, "This is a good way to kill me," he laughs back knowingly. Drummer Thomas beat out a call for war with the rest of the band joining in to do battle with the adversaries.
The stage grew darker. Only a faint yellow backlight and then total darkness, with the band still pounding out the challenge. Suddenly Elvis' face glowed red, "If you throw me away, well, I'm not broken; you've got a lot to say but I'm not joking." Reject me, I don't care, but just listen to what I have to say.
Costello took another carefully aimed shot at the music industry with his anthem-like, "Radio, Radio," dedicating the song to "all the computerized people in radio, who are trying to tell you want to think." The former computer-operator drew a definite YES from the crowd when he asked "Do you hate your radio?"
"And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools trying to anesthesize the way that you feel," he accuses. Accusations come easy, but when he backs them with "I want to bite the hand that feeds me," you have to believe him.
Finishing "Radio, Radio," he thanked the crowd and dashed off comically. House lights came up and the crowd chanted for more.
Costello has been known not to do encores. Less than two weeks ago he had driven a Seattle crowd from concert hall by turning his sound system turned on full volume to produce painful feedback.
Such was not the case in Burlington. Costello came back for two more numbers, "You Belong to Me," in which he took the crowd into his flock like so many innocent sheep, and the high-powered "Pump It Up."
As the opening act, the Rubinoos left this reviewer cold, but they served their purpose. The quartet warmed the crowd to "hot," with a set of oldies by the Beatles, the Ventures and Tommy James and the Shondells.
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