It was my first time in the QE, and surprisingly, it sounded good even if I couldn't see Elvis' teeth. He and key-pusher Steve Nieve looked small on the giant stage, but that voice… it's like Christ. When Elvis sang "What's Her Name Today?" I wanted to cry, leap up off the squishy chair and bound off of people's stupid heads on my way into his arms. Nieve's accompaniment was dynamically perfect, but his touch was laboured, like he had lead bracelets on.
Most songs performed came from the flawed Painted From Memory, but here, without the background singers, flugelhorns and drums, the song became perfect. Older songs were adult-contemporized somewhat, but they didn't sound bad, just different.
Elvis Costello: Comedian. For some stupid reason, people in Vancouver think that all comments, gestures and moments of silence are jokes. The jokes that Elvis did tell were much too clever, making me believe that he had prepared them earlier. He said he had a dream in which the Almighty Being condemned us for killing people and listening to popular music.
Elvis Costello: Actor. The last time I heard, Elvis was happily married to that woman from the Pogues, so where the hell are all his lyrics coming from? How can he stand there and make us believe that he's really in pain? He can turn on the fake emotion every time he opens his mouth.
I think it was the fifth encore, the last song, when all the mics were turned off, the lights were dimmed and Elvis made me believe he was singing to me.
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