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This time last year Elvis Costello was a computer operator in England who wrote songs in his off-time, or as he puts it, "waiting for the end of the world." By a strange quirk of fate, he released a record that was lumped with a lot of other English new wave or punk releases, and which, judging from the sing-along reactions of a standing-room-only crowd at this nightclub, has been heard rather frequently around town these days. The proof is always in the pudding, however, and the 23-year-old bespectacled Costello emerged as a rather unique kind of talent.
The show was opened by the Driveways, a semi-local five-piece group from Springfield, Mo. They combined Beatles songs like "Day Tripper" and "No Reply," and the Beach Boys' "I Get Around" with their own songs like a disco boogie satire called "Do the Hassle" and "Just a Little Bit More." Considering that the audience wanted Elvis from the start, the set came off pretty well.
Costello and group emerged soon afterward. In a suit that was three or four sizes too small and thin tie open at the neck, Costello resembled the rejected character that seems to appear in a lot of his songs, the guy who in "Miracle Man" is "doing everything just trying to please her / even crawling around on all fours," or who loses his girl to a TV program in "Watching the Detectives."
His exasperating expressions, and jerking and shaking like a marionette Buddy Holly imitating Shields and Yarnell, all serve the same purpose, which is to put the emphasis on Costello and his songs.
Instead of relying on his recorded tunes — all of which are about a year old, he did eight new ones that sounded as good as the ones on My Aim Is True, including a rather surrealistic tale called "I Don't Want to Go to Chelsea" and a denunciation of current radio programming called "Radio, Radio," which has Costello the performer singing that he wants "to bite the hand that feeds him," which makes it the perfect radio non-hit.
His band, a three-piece called the Attractions, forms a rather sparse background, bare frameworks for Costello's cryptic lyric barrages. Musically, it sounds like they've memorized every record released between 1965 and 1968.
Their strange looks and naivete only complements Costello's strange and wonderful songs, which are unlike any others these days. "There's No Answer" is a story about a guy who even gets taken by the phone company, while "Waiting for the End of the World" is a modern English "Desolation Row."
In "Sneaky Feelings" he screams that he's still got a long way to go. If he can keep writing songs like that, and stay away from the covers of Time and People, he may not have to go as far as he thinks.
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