Elvis Costello, the English singer-songwriter, usually is backed by his band the Attractions, but last night's show at the Tower Theater was a solo Costello performance. Accompanying himself on acoustic and electric guitar and piano, Costello sang a wide range of familiar and new material.
When he sings with his band, Costello's voice is problematic: a thick, nasal instrument that often loses its expressiveness when fighting to be heard above a band. On a recording, that weakness is mitigated by the recording studio's ability to push a voice forward and make it equal in volume and tone to the amplified instruments around it.
As a solo act, however, Costello's voice becomes a wonderful, even beautiful, pop instrument. Crooning songs such as "Motel Matches" and "Green Shirt," Costello's voice took on a dusky warmth. His terse, conversational phrasing shows the influence of one of his avowed idols, Frank Sinatra.
The evening was thus a pure pleasure, as Costello moved easily from guitar to keyboard, embellishing his vocals with subtle but minimal accompaniment. Costello also showcased a few new songs, including a stunning tune called "Worthless Thing." It confronts the accusations directed at Costello early in his career that he was a misogynist; it also takes a sharp slap at the MTV rock-music channel on cable TV.
The opening act on this tour was T Bone Burnett, who is Costello's American counterpart as the author of dizzyingly complex, witty songs. Burnett, too, performed as a solo act, strumming an acoustic guitar in a manner that emphasized his roots in Bob Dylan-era folk music.
Like Dylan, Burnett is a moralist who likes to couch his lessons in oblique irony; unlike Dylan, Burnett has a reserve of unfailing good humor that gives even his sternest lyrics a wry twist.
Burnett performed amiably disjointed versions of some of his best songs, such as "Boomerang" and the extraordinarily scary and funny "Trap Door." He also debuted a new composition, "My Life and the Women Who Lived It," which fully justified its title.
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