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Elvis Costello lightens up
Elvis Costello / Veterans Park, Manchester
Brendan O'Brien
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Scanning errors uncorrected...
MANCHESTER - For years, Elvis Costello fans made what sometimes seemed like a diabolical contract whenever they went to see their favorite star.
The deal they offered went down like this you, Elvis, can put us down. refuse to play our favorite songs. play short sets and generally act like a boor, and we. the fans. will for-give you. Because we love the music.
For those fans who for years were treated to rude behavior from Costello - and enjoyed it -- last night's concert in down-town Manchester presented a much better bargain. Costello's 135-mfnute set took the edge of his personality without tak-ing anything out of his music. replacing the original Angry Young Man of Rock with a smiling, laughing charmer whose songs still pulsed with energy and sarcasm.
Of course, this should come as no surprise who saw Costel-lo described as -The Beloved Entertainer" on his new album - and believed it. The phrase is hard to reconcile with Cos-tello's history, but it fits in perfectly with his present.
Costello was upbeat from the start of last night's show. promising a crowd of about 4500 "a lot of lovely songs" and then delivering with boun-cy versions of tunes including "Accidents Will Happen" and "Brilliant Mistake." His set list focused on the funniest and brightest of Costello's material, ignoring downers like "Shipbuilding" and "Tramp The Dirt Down" in favor of whimsical pop tunes.
And the set also included a healthy selection from Costel-lo's collaboration with Paul McCartney. including a solo acoustic version of the unre-corded "So Like Candy" and several songs that appeared on McCartney's album. Those songs offer a nice contrast be-tween McCartney's sen-timentality and Costello's bright. wit "I Know You Want lier Too:. for instance. is a snappy duet between McCartney as a friendly angel and Costello as a tough. minded devil.
But Costello's humor was most obvious in his treatment of last night's songs. For inst-ance. his only two singalongs came from "God's Comic" and "Let Him Dangle.- and Costel-lo seemed to take a perverse pleasure in coaxing fans into repeating -now I'm dead- from the first tune and "let him dangle" from the second.
"God's Comic" also provided a springboard for two other Costello jokes. a snatch of the Monkees' "I'm A Believer" and a hilarious monologue about a God who hates colorized movies and wants to use di-vorce lawyers for medical ex-periments.
But there was nothing silly about the musical efforts of Costello and his band. the Rude Five. Costello was in fine form both vocally and on guitar his voice drifted into a tortured wail on -Poison Rose" and rose to an inspired shout for -Lovable- and -Pump It Up."
The Rude Five. featuring former Attractions drummer Pete Thomas and a funky bas-sist in Jerry Scheff. turned in jaunty performances for Cos-tello's hardest material.
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