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The "angry young man" in Elvis Costello is all but extinct, but then he has no reason to be angry anymore.
Finally getting his long-deserved hit single in "Everyday I Write the Book," from an album outselling any of its predecessors, the sweetness of success is fanning critical and popular raves like wildfire. His barroom brawls and 55 minute concerts are long forgotten but his lashing wit is thankfully intact. (Witness his comments on Rolling Stone in last week's L.A. Times.) His show last Saturday at the County Bowl proved to be a grand celebration of his stormy six year career. Unfortunately, I missed the opening band, Aztec Camera.
Costello really seems to like Santa Barbara. He opened the show with a solo performance of a new ballad he had written which happened to be an exclusive treat for us. None of his other Southern California shows included this song. From there, the Attractions came out with the TKO Horns and Afrodiziak (his two back-up singers) and they powered their way through "Let Them All Talk" off of Punch the Clock.
The pacing of this concert was much like that of last year's Imperial Bedroom tour. He would alternate the lively rockers with slower material keeping the audience constantly dancing up and sitting down. If he wanted to, he could keep the audience in a frenzy by performing all of his party music straight through but his ballads are the kind that give you shivers and goosebumps and I had no complaints.
Always progressing musically, Elvis had rearranged much of his older material to include the horn section and the back-up singers. His timing and utilization of dramatic pauses and musical interludes was also impeccable. The Attractions have to be one of the finest bands in the business. Steve Naive on keyboards, Bruce Thomas on bass and Pete Thomas on drums all play their instruments with a professional touch not often found in pop music.
Accenting the music, the lighting seemed like it came straight from a TV variety show; you know; where the guest performer comes out to sing his/her latest hit song amidst these funky backdrops that are supposed to set the "mood." Likewise, Costello had these giant slats and was projecting green, soft orange, polka-dotted red and waterfall whites onto them giving his songs an added punch.
He had a few surprises for the audience. He performed a quick version of the English Beat song, "Stand Down Margaret," following his stirring performance of "Shipbuilding" and also did a great rendition of the Motown hit, "The Bells."
For his first encore, he did "TKO" and "Charm School" from the new album. The audience cried out for more. He came out again and did "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down." He couldn't leave until he had performed "Pump It Up" and sure enough, the crowd roared loud enough and Costello came out for a third encore for a last-chance-to-dance-and-go-crazy version of that song.
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