Back in the late 1970s, Elvis Costello & The Attractions were about the best live new wave act around. The Live At The El Mocambo set, recorded in Canada in the spring of 1978, found its way into many a fan's hands in bootleg form and still stands as one of the best-ever live recordings. Hollywood High runs it close, though. With a musical currency that had yet to be devalued by underwhelming collaborations and patchy forays into non-pop genres, this is Costello in his prime. Songs from his first two albums — "Lip Service," "Pump It Up," "Watching The Detectives," "Lipstick Vogue" — still sound viscerally thrilling today, while a piano-led ballad version of "Accidents Will Happen," from the then still to be recorded Armed Forces, is a surprising opener to the gig. On this form, we can almost forgive him that needless cod-American vocal.
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