Las Vegas Sun, May 18, 2011

Bibliography   72 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 UK & Ireland weeklies UK & Ireland magazines UK & Ireland newspapers US newspapers US rock magazines US music magazines US magazines US alternative weeklies European magazines European newspapers Canada  •  Mexico  •  Asia Australia  •  New Zealand South America  •  Africa Blogs  •  Fanzines  •  Books Online publications Las Vegas Sun   1999 June 4 2003 July 18 2003 July 21 2005 March 25 2005 March 28 2007 April 20 2008 May 29 2009 June 11 2011 May 18 Newspapers   The Australian Belgium Soir Berliner Zeitung Cleveland Scene Columbus Dispatch Connecticut Post Correio da Manhã Corriere della Sera Le Figaro Financial Times Gazeta Wyborcza Hamburger Abendblatt Irish Examiner Irish Independent Irish Press Irish Times Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger Liverpool Echo London Daily Mail London Evening Standard London Guardian London Independent London Observer London Telegraph London Times Los Angeles Herald-Examiner Louisville Courier-Journal Mail & Guardian Marin Independent Journal Mail Tribune Melbourne Age El Mundo Neue Zürcher Zeitung New Zealand Herald Otago Daily Times El Pais Philadelphia Inquirer Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Pittsburgh Tribune-Review La Presse Providence Journal Radikal Reading Eagle la Repubblica Satakunnan Kansa South China Morning Post Der Spiegel La Stampa Der Standard St. Petersburg Independent St. Petersburg Times Süddeutschen Zeitung Svenska Dagbladet Trondheim Adresseavisen Trouw De Volkskrant La Voz de Galicia Wanganui Herald Wiener Zeitung Die Zeit — Elvis Costello's no-spin zone Spencer Patterson No matter how he tried, Elvis Costello couldn't spin it last Friday night. The real star of Costello's current tour — the Spectacular Spinning Songbook, on the road for the first time in 25 years — never made it onstage at the Pearl. And Costello never provided an adequate explanation as to why fans who paid $65 to $113 per ticket in Las Vegas were denied the full production mounted one night earlier in LA or three nights later in Chicago. "It's Friday the 13th, so we don't want to court the subject of luck too much," the 56-year-old British rocker offered after he and his three-piece backing band, The Imposters, had reeled off six numbers without producing the 14-foot wheel, which normally dials up each night's setlist in real time. Later, he actually kept a straight face while purporting that the roulette-like prop had been denied access by the city's gaming powers-that-be: "They don't like competition here." And Costello apparently told one local entertainment reporter that the wheel was simply too large to fit inside the Pearl, a venue that has hosted MTV's Video Music Awards, among other massive concert events. A Palms spokesperson later denied that claim, attributing the wheel's absence to "routing issues." So what happens when you take a band accustomed to bringing audience members to the stage to spin for songs — a concept the Los Angeles Times called "the most invigorating kind of living room party, where attendees challenge one another in a combination of ‘Name That Tune' and ‘Top That!'" — and strip it back to basics? Not much. Where Neil Young & Crazy Horse raged onstage during a Vegas getaway from 2003's Greendale theatrics, Elvis and his Imposters appeared, and often sounded, bored to be here. The classics-heavy setlist looked solid enough by concert's end: "Radio Radio," "Everyday I Write the Book," "Watching the Detectives," "Clubland," "Oliver's Army," "Alison," "Pump It Up." But few felt more than perfunctory, and some were downright ragged — a far cry from the power shown by Costello on past visits. "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" started intensely, only to devolve into a faux-funk jam session more appropriate for Phishheads than an overwhelmingly older Pearl crowd. Costello ultimately did produce a wheel … on an iPad screen atop a music stand. A gaggle of ladies came up to "spin it," then stayed onstage to dance distractingly during the encore. A cliché about insults and injuries comes to mind. The Details Elvis Costello Two stars (out of five) May 13, The Pearl Las Vegas Sun, May 18, 2011 Spencer Patterson reviews Elvis Costello & The Imposters, Friday, May 13, 2011, Pearl Palms Concert Theater, Las Vegas, NV. Images Photo by Stardust Fallout.

External links

• Las Vegas Sun.com
• Wikipedia: Las Vegas Sun