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Holman Stadium in Nashua launches its Downtown Live summer concert series June 18 with Elvis Costello and The Replacements, a double bill of acts born of late '70s punk and gifted songwriting.
Headliner Costello is sporting a new look (grassy beard, longer hair and round glasses — a sort of Jerry Garcia meets John Lennon) and is touring behind his 13th studio album, Mighty Like A Rose.
The record's first single, "The Other Side of Summer" is an antidote to Beach Boys sun 'n' fun.
Costello, gifted wordsmith and king of bile in the rock pile, has always been an antidote to the happy-go-lucky. His bitter, snide lyrics have torn into everything from love and lust to radio programmers.
The music has changed vastly between his riveting 1977 debut LP, My Aim is True, and Might Like a Rose, with Costello experimenting with jazz, punk, Memphis soul, glistening pop and country on various recordings.
He's all over the place, singing a tune on the recent Deadicated album of interpretations of Grateful Dead songs, writing tunes with Paul McCartney, singing a duet with George Jones, inviting New Orleans' funky Dirty Dozen Brass Band to play on his last two recordings.
Born Declan MacManus in 1954, he has said little about his past. This much is known: The son of a dance band leader, the young MacManus programmed computers at an Elizabeth Arden factory.
He wrote songs and made demos during his free time, sometimes performing as a solo act at the London country pub, The Nashville Room.
He quit the day job in 1975 and signed on as a roadie with pub-rockers Brinsley Schwarz, becoming fast friends with the bass player, Nick Lowe.
Lowe, a staff producer at the fledgling Stiff label, got Costello signed. He recorded his debut album, My Aim is True, backed by Clover, the California band that featured vocalist Huey Lewis (who does not appear on Aim).
Costello's current band, billed as the Rude 5, includes hotshot guitarist Marc Ribot, keyboardist Larry Knechtel (who once toiled with Bread), Elvis Presley's bassist Jerry Scheff, and drummer Pete Thomas, of Costello's longtime backing band, the Attractions.
The Replacements were predicted not to have made it this far. Several articles following the release of the band's latest, heavily acoustic album, All Shook Down (virtually a solo outing by Paul Westerberg) sounded like they might never tour again.
Westerberg has been sober for months now, there's a new drummer in Steve Foley and the band has grown tighter and more serious.
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