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BRISTOL — If Elvis Costello used to be disgusted, he sure appeared to be amused Wednesday, as he sang and joked amicably with thousands of fans at Lake Compounce Festival Park.
Contrary to a review earlier on his tour that painted him as grumbly and moody, the Costello we saw Wednesday was playful and energetic, introducing his songs with comical anecdotes and interpretations that drew laughs and cheers from the crowd.
"The next song is about a really bad person indeed," Costello announced in his introduction to "Playboy to a Man," one of several newer cuts he included in his almost two hour set Wednesday.
"Somebody who's a liar, a cheater, a two-faced deceitful bastard. Yes, ladies, it's a man! A man who meets his destiny in the mind of a woman."
Looking more like Stephen Stills or a world-weary fisherman than the well-dressed but geeky misfit he was in the 1980s ("Shave, Elvis!" one fan hollered at him), Costello also shed his popular hit-paradish playlist in favor of more obscure numbers and long, bluesy jams featuring his band, The Rude 5.
This departure from the familiar may have been lost on many in the audience. For instance, as he introduced a blues number by Mose Allison ("Everybody's Cryin' Mercy"), one fan looked up expectantly from her state of "hurry up and play 'Everyday I Write The Book'" half-consciousness and yelled: "Yeah! Play 'Alison!'"
Which is understandable, considering that's the song everybody, even yet unborn children, knows by heart. But it came much later, of course, in a series of encores after Costello had played what he wanted us to hear first.
Other favorites — like "Everyday...," "Watching the Detectives," "Oliver's Army," "The Only Flame in Town," "Beyond Belief," "Almost Blue," "Inch by Inch" and anything from his 1980 album with The Attractions went unplayed.
"Accidents Will Happen" did make it in as the first cut of the evening, though it was marred by Costello's not yet warmed-up, and consequently flat, voice.
But by the time he finished the next cut, another time-worn classic rocker, "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes," he'd limbered up a bit; not to the familiar clean, plaintive tunefulness we're familiar with, but to a more weathered, whiskey-ish voice much more complementary to the blues-oriented numbers Elvis seems so drawn to these days.
New cuts performed included the ho-hum Costello-Paul McCartney collaboration, "So Like Candy," the chaotic noise-fest, "Hurry Down Doomsday (The Bugs Are Taking Over)," in which someone finally played that trash can that had been sitting curiously amidst the drum set, and a harder edged, less pop-ish version of his tidy first single, "The Other Side of Summer."
Decked in sunglasses and a suit, Costello remained bathed in red or blue lights almost the whole evening, with the only spotlights shining generously on other band members during solos.
The Replacements opened up the show, with a brief set worlds better than their recent solo tour stop at the Paramount in Springfield, Mass. For one thing, you could hear the words, always a handy feature. But the set had some touching moments that Springfield lacked. It even featured a Nanci Griffith song.
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