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Another year, another Costello Christmas concert. Could it recapture the teetering brilliance of last year's Albert Hall show? Predictably for one as constantly self-reappraising as Costello, any comparison was redundant. It was just different.
Maybe as a result of his chart renaissance, his Hammersmith Odeon performance was pure showbiz. With Costello as the political malcontent ("Pills And Soap," "Peace In Our Time," "Stand Down Margaret," et al) with his own party manifesto ("Head To Toe," "I Can't Stand Up," "TKO," etc); the lovelorn and bitter wimp ("The Jerk," "Alison," "Charm School"); always the immaculate poptician.
To see him running through the catalogue of human emotions in a couple of hours implied that they were to an extent on tap. Nevertheless, Costello's voice remained the evening's main strength with the Attractions and the rest of the entourage, switching moods with feeling and authority. Even if the Afrodiziak singers were too often superfluous, and the TKO Horns overused, it was an almost unqualified success, and Costello remains one of the few artists whose performances are essential to witness.
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