|
It's rude to be kind.
What's intriguing about Elvis Costello's new Rude Five band is the way the singer deflects stark emotion from the stubbled music. Costello and the Rude Five played their second date of a two-month American tour Wednesday night at Poplar Creek.
When Costello stormed America in 1977, he was a lurid presence playing irresistible pop music. Now, on tour to promote his latest album, Spike, Costello has assembled a band that plays in dark street-corner tones. As an artist who understands the credibility of contradiction, Costello now comes off as chipper as a television evangelist in this blue musical atmosphere.
The Rude Five's jazzy industrial sound comes from guitarist-horn player Marc Ribot and percussionist Michael Blair, both of whom are from Tom Waits' "Salvation Army" band. Opening the window for some fresh country air in this urban efficiency is bassist-tuba player Jerry Scheff, best known for his work with Elvis Presley.
The structure for Wednesday's two-hour set wasn't radically different from Costello's solo "Seven Deadly Sins" tour that played at Northwestern University in April.
This time around the new music was more faithful to the Spike record. With Scheff pumping away on tuba and an underused Steven Soles playing mandolin, a new song like "Miss Macbeth" took on appropriately tense dimensions. Costello also proved the dirge "God's Comic" was just as indulgent with a band as it was solo, as he religiously prompted the audience to sing along as if he were taking collection.
Older material such as "Clubland" was effectively dressed up in a deliberate cocktail melody, and "Watching the Detectives" had an entirely new jazzy-hip arrangement.
Some songs were delivered as sincerely as they were written, like the material in an acoustic set Costello performed in the middle of the show. As he did in April, Costello weaved Van Morrison's "Jackie Wilson Said" within his "Radio Sweetheart." He followed that with "So Like Candy," a ballad Costello co-wrote with Paul McCartney. "The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes" and "Everyday I Write the Book" were also dynamic points of the solo set.
The Rude Five rejoined Costello after the acoustic material. "Poisoned Rose" was defined by the New Orleans-influenced piano of Larry Knechtel, and "Let Him Dangle" was underlined by Soles' sad trombone and Scheff's imposing tuba.
The Spike record and tour represent a full circle for Costello, who continues to co-write with fellow Liverpudlian McCartney. While each artist is many accomplished dreams away from the dank working-class town on the Mersey, the sense of gritty conviction that comes from growing up in that oppressive environment is never lost.
And that's what Costello's fans heard on Wednesday night.
| 
