A lot of musicians have played what Elvis Costello played Tuesday night and have been a lot less successful. And their performances were maybe 15 years ago. But call him what you will — a throwback to the dark ages of rock 'n' roll, perhaps — the audience at the River Days nightclub loved him.
Costello was the least accomplished musician in the four-piece band, but that is the least of the story. The story was in the devilishly cryptic lyrics he bellowed. For an image, Costello offered hard-core antihero, wearing an old, dark suit that took on a sheen in the spotlight.
Costello, a young man who was an overnight success in Britain, offers music that is very easy to dance to, but nobody danced because they had their eyes trained on him.
There was rebellion written into every song, and the songs came fast. It was rock so basic, or just rhythm and blues with hot sauce, that the drummer went blam, blam instead of the traditional boom, boom. Meanwhile, Elvis wailed away as if he were in a small pub in a tough neighborhood.
Costello paused only long enough to catch his breath between tunes. The songs were generally of good quality in a pithy way and were quite short. So short, in fact, that he did perhaps five numbers before he spoke to the crowd. He said, "Hey. Oh yeah."
His lack of finesse on the guitar was ill-concealed, but that did not matter much. He sang songs like "Less Than Zero" and one that I thought he said was entitled "Pizza." In that one, he sang, "I don't wanna be your lover, I just wanna be your victim..." Surely it could not have been "Pizza."
Costello's set was short, about 45 minutes. A bus parked outside the club whizzed him away long before the audience, clapping and stomping for an encore, realized there was not to be one. Well, that's an antihero for you.
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