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Buttoned up against a winter-like chill delivered by the Fremantle Doctor from the nearby coast, a very healthy looking Elvis Costello gave a 100-minute solo performance that stretched from the B-side of his first single ("Radio Sweetheart") to an as-yet unreleased song ("Condemned Man"), and mixed album tracks with a few surprise cover versions. With every second on stage, the 55-year-old suggested he loves life at present. After a couple of bars of "Almost Blue," he stopped and instead played "All Or Nothing At All," a song associated with his wife, Diana Krall. This mood was continued with a tender reading of Charles Aznavour's "She" that displayed his full expressive powers as a vocalist as well as his state of mind.
During his many trips to Australia in the past 31 years, it has become apparent that playing acoustic (and mostly solo) is Costello's ideal live setting. Without a band to shout over, his singing is much warmer and his audience interaction more playful. Intimate, engaging and great fun, last Thursday's show in the grounds of a one-time mental asylum ranked with the very best he has offered Perth.
Although a tour repertoire that arrived the following morning from his publicist suggested otherwise, in the crowd it felt as if he was flying by the seat of his pants and making song choices on a whim.
Surely he must have been at some points, such as when he charged into a rough and ready cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Brilliant Disguise" that turned into an unlikely singalong. Van Morrison's "Jackie Wilson Said" seemed to appear from nowhere and was similarly embraced.
From his own material he pulled a riotous reaction from the notoriously quiet Perth audience on such unlikely fare as "She Was No Good" from his latest album, Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, and "Radio Sweetheart." He introduced "Everyday I Write the Book" as "a song I used to hate" and played "Indoor Fireworks" after hearing someone yell for it.
This was a sublime example of a veteran artist finding the place where he gave the audience (some of) the hits and memories they craved while adding songs that mean most to him at present. He illuminated every suggestive line from "Sulphur to Sugarcane" to side-splitting effect and, when stripped back to their bones, recent songs such as "Either Side of the Same Town" and "Drum & Bone" show he's still capable of composing greatness. This concert showed he's also still more than capable of performing greatness.
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