EAST LANSING — The Elvis Costello/Nick Lowe show, which touched down in the Michigan State University Auditorium here Thursday night and will land in Ann Arbor's Hill Auditorium tonight, may be acoustic — two men and their respective guitars — but rest assured it's no hippie tofu party.
In his brief opening set, Lowe, Costello's longtime producer and buddy, had the imagination to perform one song, the heretofore unrecorded "I Want To Build A Jumbo Ark," accompanying himself on a booming Fender electric bass. He also pleased longtime fans by playing his biggest hit, "Cruel To Be Kind" and the old Rockpile rabble-rouser "I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock 'N' Roll)."
Costello came on an hour later, at 9 p.m., and with the coiled intensity of a rampant python had the crowd doing his bidding in no time.
He kicked out tense versions of "Accidents Will Happen," "Watching The Detectives," "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror" and "God's Comic" from his latest album Spike, among others.
Thanks to Costello's fuel-injected energy, none of the material suffered from the lack of electric equipment. Fans also had the extra treat of hearing Costello's barbed wire wisecracks between songs.
In the grand tradition of his Linda Ronstadt-baiting, when the hapless singer covered a few of his songs — badly, he thought — Costello teed off on the Justine Bateman movie Satisfaction, which he viewed on cable in a hotel room.
"The Brady Bunch meet the Bangles and take acid," is how he sneeringly described the movie. It seems — foolish choice, kids — they covered one of his songs.
"It's a dream of mine — five 18-year-old girls sing one of my songs," Costello quipped. Badly, it seems. The song was "Mystery Dance" and he went on to play it the way it was intended.
He also lampooned those all-purpose jackals, the trash TV hosts.
"What if Geraldo went up to interview God and God looked like Morton Downey Jr.?" Elvis mused. Then he sang "God's Comic" from Spike with the deathless chorus "Now I'm dead / now I'm dead / now I'm dead..."
In the middle of the song, which describes God reclining on a waterbed, drinking cola and reading an airport novel, Costello paused and extended his description of heaven.
"It looks just like East Lansing," he said. "Only larger. And God was reading Jackie Collins' Rock Star with one eye, Danielle Steele's Star with the other and Bret Easton Ellis's Less Than Zero with his third eye."
The last reference, to the book which took its title from a Costello song, drew hoots from the audience.
"Oh, they didn't tell me this was a "literary college," Costello smirked.
Costello performed the two songs from Spike that he co-wrote with ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, "Veronica" and "Pads, Paws and Claws" ...and the Beatles didn't seem far from his mind. He segued into two Beatles songs out of nowhere; "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" and "Leave My Kitten Alone," the Little Willie John song recorded by the Beatles.
He also slipped in a sly version of Van Morrison's "Jackie Wilson Said," making the crowd sing the "Doo Doo Doo" part in a call-and-response pattern.
For his first encore, Costello returned to play a few numbers with Lowe, including "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love and Understanding."
According to a source close to the band, Costello will return in August with his longtime backup band the Attractions in tow. It's unlikely fans will get a more intimate look at Costello's wonderfully psycho-twisto persona than this current show.
Elvis, in aubergine crushed velvet, you were never lovelier.
|