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Spike. The King of America. Alison's ex-boyfriend. And now more recently, Veronica's admirer. Elvis Costello, our beloved entertainer stepped on the stage Sunday night at the S.B. County Bowl and reminded us all that rock 'n' roll isn't necessarily about reunion tours, rock operas, or even indulgent acoustic gigs designed to show how cool one is.
It's about bands.
Elvis reminded, me, at least, that solo nights are nice, but put a great band together and the possibilities are endless, magnificent, layered and rich.
With a back-up band that included a tuba, a trombonist, two guitarists (starring Marc Ribot, of Tom Waits' more recent lp's), a keyboardist, and two percussionists (featuring lone Attraction Pete Thomas), Costello conducted his troops through new editions of "Watching The Detectives" and "Clubland," along with a voluptuous rendition of "Alison."
At times the 6-piece band, "The Rude 5" sounded Afro-jangley like the Talking Heads' Naked, especially on "Chewing Gum" which drunkenly staggered, ran and skipped to a funky beat. But when Elvis had to pull back the reigns as he did on the extremely dramatic "God's Comic," the group was responsive settling down to let Costello sing a cappella, and then thundered back obediently.
Fuck any "classical music" snob who says rock doesn't have dynamics, he's obviously never left his Chopin to check out Costello. And quoting from Randy Newman, "Chopin wished he could write shit like this."
Randy was kidding, but I'm not.
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