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While each Elvis Costello record felt like a new and immediate masterpiece when it arrived — think This Year's Model or Get Happy!! or Trust — everyone could tell there was something extra-special about the baroque Beatles-esque pop of 1982's Imperial Bedroom.
The record sits at No. 166 in Rolling Stone's top 500 albums of all-time list, with the explanation, "Costello wanted his music to be as complex as his lyrics (which increasingly documented marital tension). So for his seventh album he and Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick experimented with an adult sonic palette (accordions, Mellotron, horns) that highlighted grown-up stress and sorrow."
Since it's all the rage to tour a classic LP, why not do it with IbMePdErRoIoAmL (sorry, Elvis geek alert)? The tour arrives at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee on Sunday, July 16.
Tickets range from $55.50 to $99.50 and go on sale this Friday, March 3 at noon.
The same venue hosted Costello's amazing solo performance a few years back.
Alas, trainspotters, The Attractions — who made the record with Costello — will not perform it with him, though 66.67 percent of the group will: drummer Pete Thomas and keyboardist Steve Nieve. Because bassist Bruce Thomas has long since been replaced by Davey Faragher, you'll get The Imposters, instead, and that's just fine. Also on tap will be backing singers Kitten Kuroi and YahZarah.
The "Imperial Bedroom & Other Chambers" tour kicked off last year and the Milwaukee date is part of another 23-date leg.
"We never intended to recite this book from cover to cover," says Costello. "Listen to our new arrangement of 'Tears Before Bedtime,' it gets straight to the real meaning of that song, the way we hear and feel it today. Back in 1982, I might have been a step or two ahead of our crowd in the tragic, romantic stakes but I sense that they've all caught up with me now."
As for the "Other Chambers," Dec sez: "You never know who or what you are going to encounter down the corridor to those 'Other Chambers.'"
At other shows on the tour, standards like "Alison" and "Everyday I Write the Book" have made the cut, alongside deeper cuts like "King Horse," "American Mirror" and "This House Is Empty Now."
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