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Nashua took its first faltering steps into the big leagues of Great Woods-hood last night as Holman Stadium thumped to the beat of the Replacements and Elvis Costello. The evening definitely had its moments.
Longtime Replacements fans were disappointed not to hear some prime cuts like "All Shook Down," but the band sang a good selection of their stuff, from "Happy Town" and "Swingin Party" to "Playing at the Talent Show" and their latest single, "When It Began."
Putting The Replacements on the same bill as Costello may be a way to give them broader exposure, but there's a flip side. They sounded sharp, and they were funny. But the Nashua audience seemed not to be among their admittedly fringe cult following, and except for some rather scattered and restrained applause there wasn't the appreciation that would have turned the show into a really exciting set. The band never really swung into things faster moving about in a disconnected and somewhat lost way on the stage.
The crowd, about 5,000 strong, were really there to hear Elvis Costello, and Costello didn't disappoint. With his backup band, The Rude Five, he nailed song after song. Taking an almost perfect line through his assorted material and dividing his time between solid rock, ballads, and his trademark treatment of the blues, he delivered in style, having to come back for three encores.
Costello's sets included brilliant performances of "Deep and Truthful Mirror," "The Other Side of Summer," "Candy" and "Veronica" — this last receiving an especially sharp delivery. A little less effective was "Pump It Up" and "Oliver's Army."
As part of one of his encores, Costello also included a hilarious political commentary on how mankind has mistreated our planet.
All in all, the musical part of the evening was great. The ambience left a little to be desired, however. The sound system, said to be rated at 105 decibels, provided free music (obscenities and all) for residents within a six-block radius, while a surprising number of ticket holders couldn't take it and left early. One departing young man paused near me and remarked to a friend, "It's getting too loud for me."
Unlike a symphony concert, a rock concert is a participatory event, the crowd is expected to be mobile, and there should be a fair amount of dancing and swaying everywhere there's a flat horizontal surface. These activities are harmless, but the ushers seemed afraid they would erupt into violence, and were self importantly stopping patrons who wanted to get together in the aisles and dance. The incessant checking of tickets as people moved about was also unnecessarily annoying.
Let's hope the promoters can straighten out their mistakes before the next concert, this kind of music is well worth bringing to our city if it's handled properly.
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