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It was a dark and stormy night when Elvis Costello invaded suburbia. The cold wetness didn't dampen the enthusiasm of the 5,500 rock fans who braved the inclement weather to catch Saturday's nearly 2½-hour show at Concord Pavilion.
Saturday's show was also the final night of Costello's tour, one that began in January, and that had played to a sold-out Greek Theatre in Berkeley the night before.
Rather than tired, Costello was in more than happy spirits. He has grown from punk's most caustically punchy pundit to become a mature, well-rounded entertainer.
On Saturday he changed some songs from the Greek show, and even tossed in a bit of the Beatles' "Rain" for the occasion, as well as a few songs he recently has written with ex-Beatle Paul McCartney.
Just as Costello showed up to sing with his original producer Nick Lowe at Lowe's recent Slim's club show, Lowe appeared at the Pavilion to join Costello on "What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding."
In black-rimmed glasses, snazzy gray blazer over black shirt and slacks (and brown shoes?), Costello at 34 seemed far more the polished bandleader than a rock star. He bounced nimbly around the stage, sometimes jabbing at his electric guitar or strumming a 12-string acoustic.
Sandwiched between his opening "Accidents Will Happen" and eighth encore "Pump It Up" was a collection of some of the best-written songs of the past decade, rendered in better-than usual fashion by the Rude Five, a six-man band that provided an orchestral palette of sound coloration for Costello's wide-ranging moods and styles.
More than two dozen songs were played from throughout his 12-album, 13-year career, brought to life by a band of old friends and studio pros — pop keyboardist Larry Knechtel, the original Elvis' bassist Jerry Scheff, former Dylan sideman Steven Soles of the Alpha Band, Costello's drummer Pete Thomas, rock guitarist Marc Ribot and ever-inventive percussionist Michael Blair from Tom Waits' band.
Their instrumentation expanded to include accordion and mandolin, brass (trumpet, tuba and trombone), three tympani, even marimba, as well as acoustic and electric guitars.
When Costello made his local debut 12 years ago at the Old Waldorf with a very punchy and angry show whose songs were more spat-out than sung, a collaboration with McCartney seemed the least likely pairing.
McCartney represents all that is corporate, pop and established in music, and Costello seemed to be punk's most articulate and caustic critic of all that was entrenched in society.
But, as he has matured, Costello has moved beyond anger to display a range of emotions plus the ability to work comfortably in nearly any setting, from country to soul. He even teamed with Tony Bennett and the Count Basie Band for a video special in 1983.
The McCartney-Costello collaborations (on each of their most recent albums) have been heralded by the music media, and for good reason: They've brought out qualities in each that had not been strong before. It's arguable whether "Pads, Paws and Claws" is all that memorable on Costello's Spike album, but it certainly was a rousing encore, aided by a punchy band accompaniment.
Other McCartney-Costello pennings included Costello's closest thing to a hit song in many years, the upbeat pop ditty "Veronica," and two from McCartney's Flowers in the Dirt album, "That Day Is Done," and "My Brave Face," the latter done in an acoustic guitar-backed medley with "The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes" and "Everyday I Write the Book."
Costello also managed to swing from out-and-out fun and rock to some serious moments. "Tramp the Dirt Down," his angry indictment of Margaret Thatcher for ignoring the plight of England's homeless and impoverished, was delivered solo with just his acoustic guitar for accompaniment, made more powerful because the focus was on the lyrics.
His new "God's Comic" lurched, brass-band style, between hilarious (lights go out and band-members play musical chairs, playing each other's instruments when the lights come on, with Costello on tuba) and the chilling, as Costello toyed with the lyrics, mixing in political comments along the way.
Most interesting, where his Berkeley audience had sat in rapt attention through his talk, in Concord a few voices shouted out for him to "Just play the music!"
He was pretty funny even in his social observations, alternating from his role as God's comic playing to a cast of the dead in heaven, to God handing down judgments: "You, the slimy one, the president of Exxon, go down to Alaska and clean up the coast with your tongue."
And he did get the crowd to sing the refrain, "Now I'm 'dead, now, I'm dead." At the end he intoned: "Ladies and gentlemen, the Supreme Being has left the building."
Before a medley of "Radio Sweetheart" and Van Morrison's "Jackie Wilson Said," Costello joked about the gullibility of the American public: "Judging from your new vice president, you'll believe anything, like that your ex-president has a new barber."
Not that the crowd was antagonistic. On the contrary, they sang along on a half-dozen songs, usually filling in the background or response lines, from "Let Him Dangle" through the instrumental riff of the Animals' "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," to his early ballad, "Alison."
Where most shows with cold weather have muffled crowd response and driven lawn-dwellers home early, on Saturday they stayed through the whole show, and seemed energized by having to deal with had weather to get at Costello's music.
Costello remains one of the few pop artists willing to take chances with his music, jumping styles and directions, breaking from the image media and fans have of him.
Only Bob Dylan has remained as prolific, challenging and unpredictable, while continuing to enjoy popularity. Costello is an artist who has proven himself, and people will sit through a few weak sketches (of which there was none on Saturday) to get at those pop-song masterpieces.
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