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Elvis Costello has changed in appearance from his late '70s punky angry young man image.
He now sports a beard and ponytail and is a little chunkier, but, thankfully, his music and sardonic wit and humor are still as sharp as ever.
Friday night he gave an exhilarating two-hour show that drew an ecstatic response from a crowd of 13,000.
Costello drew heavily on his new album, Mighty Like A Rose, but also served up a generous helping of his classics. He opened with a dynamic rendition of "Accidents Will Happen," followed by an equally powerful "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes."
It was immediately evident that his band, with Attractions drummer Pete Thomas, Jerry Scheff on bass, Larry Knechtel on keyboard, and guitarist Marc Ribot, offered the perfect foil for Costello's impassioned earthy vocals and complex lyrical ramblings.
A poignant "Harpies Bizarre" and a powerful "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror" offered further evidence that Costello and the band were in top form.
The breezy pop-rock of "The Other Side of Summer," the most commercial cut from the new album, was simply bursting with energy, as was the wistful "Veronica."
Costello frequently changed the pace of the show, switching from graceful ballads like "So Like Candy" to buoyant pop-rockers like "Temptation." He also switched from guitar to piano for a haunting "That Day Is Done," which featured a great Costello vocal and some majestic organ frills from Knechtel, whose keyboard work was magnificent all evening.
The band slipped into a slow jazzy blues mood for a fine reading of Mose Allison's "Everybody's Crying Mercy, But They Don't Know the Meaning of the Word." Ribot shone on this number with a flurry of melodic, fluid guitar leads.
In a generous six-song encore, Costello highlighted his eloquent and caustic lyrical sensibilities with a lengthy "God's Comic" in which he lambasted Madonna, Michael Bolton, Ted Turner and others. The classic lines "A frightened child leaves a hero, and everything means less than zero" brought an extra round of applause from the crowd.
Things wound up to a fever pitch with a joyous version of the old Brinsley Schwarz classic "What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding," "Alison" and a powerhouse "Pump It Up."
Earlier in the evening the Replacements livened up the crowd with a hard-edged 45-minute set that, although entertaining, didn't quite ignite.
The band has an abundance of infectious tunes with catchy riffs, but somehow it seemed lost in this huge venue. And they generally played too loud, burying the vocals of Paul Westerberg. It seemed they would have been more at home in a nightclub.
Still, they hit some peaks with "Merry Go Round," "Swingin Party" and "Waitress In The Sky" and received a warm response from the crowd.
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