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Everybody was at the Riviera Theater Friday night. Chicago rock's critical and broadcasting establishment came to see Elvis Costello and Tom Petty, two of 1977's hottest new talents with similar roots in the classic British rock of the '60s.
Petty and Costello aren't really part of the New Wave — both write varied songs that deny the genre's occasionally heavy-handed monotony — but their status on the fringe emphasizes the sense of deja vu surrounding late-'70s rock 'n' roll.
Elvis Costello and the Attractions come on like they're bursting out of a Manchester club in 1964, crackling with raw electricity and a bagful of extraordinarily catchy tunes. By contrast, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers come across like the Rolling Stones circa 1969, a rock band that already had learned how to magnify the big beat to dramatically exaggerated proportions.
Costello says his songs are based on revenge and guilt, and his frantic 50-minute set is a screaming wall of gut-level rock 'n' roll emotionalism. Elvis comes on like an overloaded rock 'n' roll robot; plug him in and he slams through his repertory with a manic, pigeon-toed dance.
His songs draw on a variety of musical forms, ranging from rockabilly to blues to reggae, but perhaps the most telling influence is Question Mark & the Mysterians. If the name doesn't ring a bell, Just remember the old hit "96 Tears." The roller-rink Farfisa organ of that song, backed by the most insistent drumming this side of a metronome and emphasized by Costello's minimal guitar, characterizes the Attractions.
Costello's art, though, is his songwriting, and the fact that a full half of Friday's set was new material bodes well for his creative future. His songs reveal a myriad of intriguing images; my current favorite, from the electrically charged reggae tune "Watching the Detectives," is "She's filing her nails while they're dragging the lake."
If Costello is often the victim in his tales of cynical romance, he also is a master of the Dylanesque put-down. In "Miracle Man," he snarls, "everybody loves you so much girl, I don't know how you stand the strain." But in his hypertense ballad, "Alison," oddly absent from Friday's set, Costello reveals his romantic vulnerability.
The new "It's the Beat," though, emphasizes Elvis' main concern. His set zips by at a blinding pace, rampaging over the dynamics in a blurry style that surrealy emphasizes his fine melodic sense. Gruffer than on record, Costello's singularly energetic and wacked-out presentation — somebody said he looked like Bill Cullen in need of corrective shoes — makes him a vital, if not yet fully realized, live performer.
Tom Petty, whose current hit "Breakdown" is from his superb 1976 debut, recalls British rock of a later mold. His note-perfect rendition of the Animals' "Don't Bring Me Down," underscores his British-American perspective. The song was written by two Americans, Gerry Goffin and Carole King, but made famous by the rocky British rhythm and blues band. Yankee Petty's stunning interpretation brings the chain of influences full circle.
If Petty's tough and rhythmic rock often recalls the Rolling Stones, guitarist Mike Campbell is the Heartbreakers' Keith Richards. Campbell, a china-doll fresco of a rock star, plays an elegantly tasteful lead guitar that infuses Petty's solidly wrought tunes with an undercurrent of foreboding electricity.
It is the songs, though, from the Byrds-like "American Girl" to the second encore of an old Stones favorite, "Route 66," that make Petty a hard rock contender. Where bands like Aerosmith needlessly dress up old styles for the '70s, Petty mines the energetic vitality of '60s rock to create his own excitement.
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