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Leave it to docile Dayton, but it seems our town has once again performed the new impossible. Elvis Costello, rock 'n' roll's last angry young man, appeared in concert here for the first time Saturday at the Victory Theatre.
Just like March, he came on like a lion and went out like a lamb.
Well, perhaps he wasn't that docile, but Costello was strangely acquiescent in his song-packed 1¼ hour set. Reports from other tour stops have had Costello playing abbreviated sets, berating audiences for non-participation and steadfastly refusing encores.
But for his Dayton stop, Costello was on his best behaviour, even stopping the show at one point to peer over the stage spots and break into a big friendly grin.
The Audience — a mixed bag of trendy intellectuals, posers and pseudo-punks and die-hard Costello fans — hung on every song in the well-paced set, and Costello paid them back with a blistering rock 'n' roll show, the sort of music conspicuous by its absence from the Dayton stage since the Rolling Stones lit a fire at Hara Arena in 1968.
The concert was opened by a feeble set by the Rubinoos, a group of Californian men who evidently feel it is perfectly acceptable to pretend to be teenagers, although their act is stupidly calculated and obviously phony.
After a half-hour wait, Costello and his group, the Attractions, mounted the stage and began with a slowed-down arrangement of "Hand in Hand," spotlighting Steve Nieve's eerie, horror-movie organ playing and the seemingly connected-at-the-soul rhythm section of bassist Bruce Thomas and drummer Pete Thomas.
That song exploded into "Goon Squad," Costello's treatise on informants and impending fascism from his breakthrough LP, Armed Forces. Costello played almost all of that album's songs, substituting power and blitz for the intricate arrangements and harmonies on the studio record.
The highlights of the set were two new, unrecorded songs (one called "Big Opportunity" and another titled either "B Movie" or "Reel to Reel"), and a dramatic ear-splitting rendition of "Lipstick Vogue." The latter was accented by breathtaking lighting effects, including a high-intensity "hot-spot" which bathed Costello in a red glow, making him look like Buddy Holly risen from the grave. The effect was repeated for a stops-out reading of "Watching the Detectives."
He closes with "Radio, Radio," his attack on bland American radio programming. The encore was two songs from This Year's Model, "Pump It Up" and a wild, frenzied "You Belong To Me."
The only damper on the evening was some unnecessary roughhousing of photographers, a move Victory management said was demanded by Costello himself. The "no-pictures-please" policy is normally used by performers who think more of their image than fans.
Costello's appearance seems to indicate the myth-making that has surrounded his brief career is finally taking a back seat to his abilities as a performer. Costello doesn't need that sort of invented persona. He is a rock 'n' roll master, and after Saturday, no one should need further convincing.
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