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I saw Elvis Costello at the Bottom Line when his first album was out, the first time he played New York City. He was astounding, and his band, the Attractions, was superb. They played for an hour and a half, and he never took his hands off the guitar, never mind having a drink or smoking a cigarette. The energy was very strong. The keyboard player had a Farfisa organ, and it gave them a great sound. The set ended, and when everyone applauded and yelled for an encore, Elvis came back and ran up and down the stage, screaming "Get up! Get up!" until everyone was standing, and then they played a few encore songs. Most of the set was fast, and so were the encores. I, an aspiring songwriter, sat there thinking, "This guy is better than me."
I saw him a few more times, first at a big show in the Palladium. Mink DeVille opened, then Rockpile played a half hour set, then came Elvis and the Attractions. They now had a good light show — Elvis was often in green light, looking like a mad scientist. The songs were still mostly fast.
Years later, I saw him at the Pier. The Summer series was run by the same promoter as the Central Park shows, but it had been moved to a giant pier. I saw a bunch of people there. Anyway, Elvis was into the slow ballads on this tour, and when he did his old favorites for the people, he rushed through them, and they didn’t really work right. He was into the other stuff by then.
I saw him do a solo show, with solo Nick Lowe opening, at Patrick Gym, up in Burlington, Vermont. It was interesting to see him solo, but his guitar work was just strumming, and it was nowhere as interesting as his band. I got to shake his hand, though, after the show, and my friend got his autograph on an early picture-sleeve single, and now I have that.
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