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With a show that started with a standing ovation before the first song even began, it’s safe to say Elvis Costello had his audience wrapped around the neck of his multiple guitars.
Playing to a sold-out crowd last Thursday night at the Napa Valley Opera House, Costello wowed his fans with diverse arrangements of both old favorites and new offerings. Costello, playing solo with only his guitars for company, opened the show with “45” from his “When I Was Cruel,” album.
The musician moved deftly between all eras of his diverse career, covering some of his older songs while adding newer tunes from his new album “Secret, Profane and Sugarcane,” among others.
Costello fans that grew up with his music in the ’80s might have been surprised at his new versions of old classics such as “Radio Sweetheart” and “Veronica” but that didn’t stop them from giving the performer a standing ovation after virtually every song.
He’s certainly earned the adulation. Costello’s career has run the gamut from ’70s punk to creating music for opera. Along the way he’s worked with talents including George Jones, Paul McCartney, Tony Bennett and most recently, T-Bone Burnett.
“I’m going to play a song for you I hate,” Costello joked at one point on Thursday night. “I really can’t stand it. But now I like it again,” he said, launching into the favorite “Every Day I Write the Book.”
At different points in the two-hour set, Costello alternated between singing in falsetto, whistling and even sitting on the steps of the Opera House stage and singing without any microphone at all. The audience willingly joined in for favorites including “God’s Comic” from the 1989 album “Spike.” Later the musician turned his classic “Alison” into a wistful ballad and “Watching the Detectives” into an eerie, almost psychedelic version.
The night with Elvis ended with a four-song encore including “From Sulfur to Sugarcane,” “The Spell You Cast” and a haunting rendition of “I Want You.”
Judging from a final standing ovation, Costello fans want more of the singer too.
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