Good Times, January 16, 1978: Difference between revisions
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A sometimes striking song-writer with a fresh, direct, melodic style, Costello is hampered onstage by his wooden indecisiveness – should he go all the way with the pop-eyed post-geek persona he’s been saddled with, or should he instead give vent to his own obviously disturbed personality? Outside of an occasional splay-footed lurch and a curious robot moué that never leaves his lips, he ain’t much to watch. And he’s further encumbered by a four-piece backup band that must’ve been tossed together on the plane trip over here. (It requires a really web-footed ineptitude to trample the beat on as precise and straight-forward a rocker as “Mystery Dance,” one of the strongest cuts on Costello’s ''My Aim Is True'' album, but these bozos turned it into a cymbal-crashing stampede worthy of the Surfaris.) | A sometimes striking song-writer with a fresh, direct, melodic style, Costello is hampered onstage by his wooden indecisiveness – should he go all the way with the pop-eyed post-geek persona he’s been saddled with, or should he instead give vent to his own obviously disturbed personality? Outside of an occasional splay-footed lurch and a curious robot moué that never leaves his lips, he ain’t much to watch. And he’s further encumbered by a four-piece backup band that must’ve been tossed together on the plane trip over here. (It requires a really web-footed ineptitude to trample the beat on as precise and straight-forward a rocker as “Mystery Dance,” one of the strongest cuts on Costello’s ''My Aim Is True'' album, but these bozos turned it into a cymbal-crashing stampede worthy of the Surfaris.) | ||
As for Elvis’s own instrumental talents, well, they’re not likely to rouse Mick Taylor out of a good nod. He blew the simple but haunting bass-string lead on “Watching The Detectives,” and reverted to choked, unchanging rhythm chops on virtually every other song. Along with a whole new band, he also needs a second guitarist, which might enable him to add the kind of short, tasty fills that brighten up his album so effectively. | |||
Costello is an odd duck for sure (more! more!), and he just might turn out to be a whole new kind of hot-shot songwriter. But throwing him into an American tour at this embryonic stage of his development was a punishment beyond cruel and unusual – especially that embarrassing “Saturday Night Live” guest shot a few nights later where he pissed everybody off by suddenly breaking into “Radio, Radio,” a new anti-media song right in the middle of his more acceptable (in this country, at least!) “Less Than Zero”. It’s been a gruelling initiation, but I for one am not writing the boy off. With a little time, he could become punk’s perverse answer to Leo Sayer, or something equally unimaginable. | |||
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{{Tags}}[[Bottom Line]] {{-}} [[Tuff Darts]] {{-}} [[Mystery Dance]] {{-}} [[My Aim Is True]] | {{Tags}}[[Bottom Line]] {{-}} [[Tuff Darts]] {{-}} [[Mystery Dance]] {{-}} [[My Aim Is True]] {{-}} [[Watching The Detectives]] {{-}} [[Saturday Night Live]] {{-}} [[Radio, Radio]] {{-}} [[Less Than Zero]] | ||
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[[Category:Concert reviews]] | [[Category:Concert reviews]] | ||
[[Category:1977 concert reviews]] | [[Category:1977 concert reviews]] | ||
Revision as of 21:20, 7 October 2019
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