KINGSTON — The first time I saw Elvis Costello, in 1978, he and his band, the Attractions, played in a college gymnasium, stormed through a savage 45-minute set and stalked off the stage without a word.
Saturday night, in another college gymnasium, Costello appeared solo, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. He sang for almost two hours. And he did everything but juggle to win over his audience at the University of Rhode Island.
Costello's formidable talents as a songwriter have been apparent from the start. Indeed, over the years Costello has been so prolific and so diverse that he has sometimes been difficult to keep in focus.
By choosing to appear solo, Costello has deliberately stripped himself of some of his weapons, from the intense rock of the Attractions to the musical smorgasbord of his latest album, Spike. But by eliminating the arrangements Costello also gave his material added directness, and allowed himself extraordinary freedom in terms of arrangement and material.
With scores of his own songs to choose from, Costello opened with the classic "Accidents Will Happen" and proceeded to range widely over his career. As a performer, Costello was superb. His voice was strong and cutting, whether rising to a howl on "Let Him Dangle" or sinking to an anguished tremor on "I Want You." His use of dynamics — sudden silences, tempo shifts, changed in volume, brief a capella passages — was masterful.
Costello also fully explored the rhythmic possibilities on guitar, from the percussive, Bo Diddley beat of "Uncomplicated" to the hard, clean strumming of "Veronica" to the low bass rumble that accompanied "Green Shirt."
When technical difficulties arose, Costello handled things with aplomb. During "New Amsterdam," Costello used sound problems as an occasion to launch into the Beatles "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," before moving back to the original tune. "That was an adventure, wasn't it?" Costello said.
There were more adventures to come, as Costello sandwiched songs together throughout the show. Sometimes, it was just a line dropped in from another tune, like the quick quote from Bob Dylan's "Tangled Up in Blue" in the middle of "Brilliant Mistake." But he closed out "Uncomplicated" with a powerful performance of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away," and included a good-sized chunk of Van Morrison's "Jackie Wilson Said" while singing "Radio Sweetheart."
He also worked the audience like a veteran show-biz trouper, whether inviting the crowd to sing along or describing an encounter between God and Geraldo Rivera in "God's Comic." Here was a likeable, funny Elvis Costello.
After a couple of songs with Nick Lowe, his opening act and long-time Costello cohort, stagehands wheeled a giant red heart onto the stage and Costello dispatched someone in a wolfman suit to fetch women from the audience. Once on stage, they selected a "sin" from within the heart and requested a song from Costello.
Costello let the heart business go on a tad too long, but it was an effective way to get to the hits he must have guessed would be requested — "Alison," "The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes" and "Pump It Up."
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