Q, August 1994: Difference between revisions
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<center><h3> Nonchalant </h3></center> | <center><h3> Nonchalant </h3></center> | ||
<center>''' | <center>''' Elvis Costello & The Attractions ''' / Central Park, New York </center> | ||
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<center> David Cavanagh </center> | <center> David Cavanagh </center> | ||
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'''Let bygones be bygones, for Elvis Costello & The Attractions are together once more. | |||
{{Bibliography text}} | {{Bibliography text}} | ||
Under 80-foot oak parasols in the heat of a New York afternoon, outdoor minors are hugging to Brad Roberts's groovy voice on Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm: so deep it could wobble a squirrel out of its tree at 25 yards. According to | Under 80-foot oak parasols in the heat of a New York afternoon, outdoor minors are hugging to Brad Roberts's groovy voice on "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm": so deep it could wobble a squirrel out of its tree at 25 yards. According to a sardonic Elvis Costello, Crash Test Dummies' role on this [[:Category:1994 US Tour|tour]] — and he's not a fan — is to babysit the 11 to 15-year-olds in the crowd, at which point the sinister Elv will materialise, signal bedtime from behind nasty specs and proceed to light a bushfire under their folks. | ||
Meanwhile, whoever is in charge of the Central Park ghettoblaster is hinting at one deeply cool sense of humour by following the Dummies' set with the only song that was ever sung deeper: "Wand'rin' Star" by Lee Marvin. | Meanwhile, whoever is in charge of the Central Park ghettoblaster is hinting at one deeply cool sense of humour by following the Dummies' set with the only song that was ever sung deeper: "Wand'rin' Star" by Lee Marvin. | ||
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The Central Park SummerStage is two shows into its festival season (the first was by The Neville Brothers the previous week) and by August 7 the inhabitants of the Large Granny Smith will have seen such diverging art spectacles as Booker T. & The MG's; Verdi's Un Giorno De Regno as performed by the New York Grand Opera; The Juliana Hatfield Three; and John Cage's 4'33<nowiki>''</nowiki> (of silence) "interpreted" by David Tudor and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. | The Central Park SummerStage is two shows into its festival season (the first was by The Neville Brothers the previous week) and by August 7 the inhabitants of the Large Granny Smith will have seen such diverging art spectacles as Booker T. & The MG's; Verdi's Un Giorno De Regno as performed by the New York Grand Opera; The Juliana Hatfield Three; and John Cage's 4'33<nowiki>''</nowiki> (of silence) "interpreted" by David Tudor and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. | ||
Tonight, though, there is a steely horn-rim glare. awaiting, for this is the New York return of Elvis Costello & The Attractions, eight long years off the road. In the interim, Costello | Tonight, though, there is a steely horn-rim glare. awaiting, for this is the New York return of Elvis Costello & The Attractions, eight long years off the road. In the interim, Costello has recorded with everyone in the world not previously booked up by Jah Wobble; grinned and presumably borne it as bassist Bruce Thomas's book, ''The Big Wheel'', dished the filth about life on the road with The Attractions in the late '70s and early '80s; written a song — it is alleged — condemning said errant bassist, the very nasty "How To Be Dumb;" and got his worst ever British reviews by daring to front The Rude 5, while sporting a long beard and hard-to-comb hair. | ||
Happily, there is not a beard to be seen as Costello and band amble out on to the SummerStage. The leader, armed with the time-honoured suit and Fender Jazzmaster, has already bullied the crowd out of what he churlishly feels is Dummies-inflicted torpor by subjecting them to a blast of Riot Grrrl pioneerettes Bikini Kill. Both Thomases are enviably slim and clad in T-shirts. Steve Nieve has rarely looked more dapper, his eyes hidden as per by sunglasses. | Happily, there is not a beard to be seen as Costello and band amble out on to the SummerStage. The leader, armed with the time-honoured suit and Fender Jazzmaster, has already bullied the crowd out of what he churlishly feels is Dummies-inflicted torpor by subjecting them to a blast of Riot Grrrl pioneerettes Bikini Kill. Both Thomases are enviably slim and clad in T-shirts. Steve Nieve has rarely looked more dapper, his eyes hidden as per by sunglasses. | ||
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According to Costello, a week's rehearsal at S.I.R. studios in New York was all it took. Bruce Thomas hadn't played on half of ''Brutal Youth'' (Nick Lowe had taken over), so they started rehearsing with "13 Steps Lead Down" and, just for fun, counted out old numbers to see how far they'd get. | According to Costello, a week's rehearsal at S.I.R. studios in New York was all it took. Bruce Thomas hadn't played on half of ''Brutal Youth'' (Nick Lowe had taken over), so they started rehearsing with "13 Steps Lead Down" and, just for fun, counted out old numbers to see how far they'd get. | ||
"We'd get to the bridge," Costello smiles, "and nobody could remember | "We'd get to the bridge," Costello smiles, "and nobody could remember — including me who wrote it — where it went next." | ||
This frenetic salvo tonight | This frenetic salvo tonight — "The Beat," "Honey Are You Straight Or Are You Blind?" — isn't even their most dramatic introduction. In fact, this one rates as pretty insidious by their new standards. Give them darkness and a suitably late hour and they'll slam into their set like borderline psychos. | ||
And yet... | And yet... | ||
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"I enjoyed what I was hearing," he allows, "but every time I tried to lose myself in it, I started to worry because of this phasing between my ears. So I don't know." | "I enjoyed what I was hearing," he allows, "but every time I tried to lose myself in it, I started to worry because of this phasing between my ears. So I don't know." | ||
You would have had no idea. "Man Out Of Time," a classic song now approaching its teens, was a beautifully ornate Attractions performance, stylish and grand, with the merest of gaps punctuating its close and the tell-tale rumble of "Watching The Detectives." The musicians now appear and re-appear in shadowy light. Very little communal eye contact goes on. Costello only stores directly-and invariably mad-eyed | You would have had no idea. "Man Out Of Time," a classic song now approaching its teens, was a beautifully ornate Attractions performance, stylish and grand, with the merest of gaps punctuating its close and the tell-tale rumble of "Watching The Detectives." The musicians now appear and re-appear in shadowy light. Very little communal eye contact goes on. Costello only stores directly-and invariably mad-eyed — at the others as songs end. Bruce Thomas only looks at Pete Thomas when he fluffs a bass line, which happens precisely twice. Steve Nieve and the drummer stare at one another now and again, possibly to confirm the curious fact that neither of them seems to have aged since 1980. | ||
"We are getting on pretty good actually," Costello admits with a chuckle. "Tours will go up and down, you know. Some days it's like ''The Monkees'', some days it's like ''Last Of The Summer Wine'' depending on how grumpy everybody is. Everybody's more quirky, but maybe you lust notice it more. I think when you get older you're not as selfish, you're not completely on your own trip the whole time. You can actually ask somebody, Hey, how're you doin' today?" | "We are getting on pretty good actually," Costello admits with a chuckle. "Tours will go up and down, you know. Some days it's like ''The Monkees'', some days it's like ''Last Of The Summer Wine'' depending on how grumpy everybody is. Everybody's more quirky, but maybe you lust notice it more. I think when you get older you're not as selfish, you're not completely on your own trip the whole time. You can actually ask somebody, Hey, how're you doin' today?" | ||
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"I think in some cases we play these songs better than we ever played them," Costello says, with some justification. "In some cases we're playing songs we couldn't kicking play then. "Party Girl" we could never play live. I think we attempted it three times in 1979 and it was always a disaster. The first time we did it (on this tour) the audience was like, My God! Not everybody knows what it is. But one of the things that's really good fun to do is to play the one that nobody thought they would ever hear you play. Even if it only knocks out 20 people in the audience, that makes doing it worthwhile. And it also makes it worthwhile for us because it proves to us that the song was good after all." | "I think in some cases we play these songs better than we ever played them," Costello says, with some justification. "In some cases we're playing songs we couldn't kicking play then. "Party Girl" we could never play live. I think we attempted it three times in 1979 and it was always a disaster. The first time we did it (on this tour) the audience was like, My God! Not everybody knows what it is. But one of the things that's really good fun to do is to play the one that nobody thought they would ever hear you play. Even if it only knocks out 20 people in the audience, that makes doing it worthwhile. And it also makes it worthwhile for us because it proves to us that the song was good after all." | ||
Never mind "Party Girl," how many people know "Puppet Girl"? From Wendy James's ''Now Ain't The Time For Your Tears Babe'' | Never mind "Party Girl," how many people know "Puppet Girl"? From Wendy James's ''Now Ain't The Time For Your Tears Babe'' — an album written by Costello with tongue, everyone assumes, not a million miles from cheek — it's actually a dazzling tune in the honds of The Attractions. Costello dedicates it to "any aspiring pop nymphets out there", just to put the final boot into poor Wendy. And, as only he can, he switches to the other end of the emotional scale for "Alison," notoriously tender and do-right, which he embellishes with excerpts — which seem, momentarily to fox The Attractions — of three lachrymose Smokey Robinson numbers: "Tracks Of My Tears," "Tears Of A Clown" and "No More Tear-Stained Make-Up." To close the second encore, they pull out "Accidents Will Happen," which was the set's opening song for ages when Costello first penned it in 1979. | ||
"We'd like to leave you with this. ." Possibly through sheer perversity, the last song is "All The Rage," from ''Brutal Youth''. A languorous waltz, its valedictory importance rests on its pleading chorus {"say goodbye" | "We'd like to leave you with this..." Possibly through sheer perversity, the last song is "All The Rage," from ''Brutal Youth''. A languorous waltz, its valedictory importance rests on its pleading chorus {"say goodbye" — Costello waves good-bye to the crowd) plus its merciful comedown feel after such a frenetic gig. | ||
But of course, that isn't the end. As The Attractions stomp into Nick Lowe's "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love And Understanding" | But of course, that isn't the end. As The Attractions stomp into Nick Lowe's "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love And Understanding" — the Great Man watches from sidestage — it appears that, rather dramatically, EC & The Attractions may have both the inclination and the repertoire to play all night. There's been no "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea," no "I Hope You're Happy Now," no "Uncomplicated," nothing at all from ''Get Happy!'' | ||
But, as it happens, even Central Park closes for business. The final song is Pump It Up, Costello bids the Park goodnight by introducing each Attraction in turn and a leisurely exit from the lovely clearing is soon underway. | But, as it happens, even Central Park closes for business. The final song is Pump It Up, Costello bids the Park goodnight by introducing each Attraction in turn and a leisurely exit from the lovely clearing is soon underway. | ||
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{{Bibliography images}} | {{Bibliography images}} | ||
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<br><small> | <br><small>Page scans.</small> | ||
<small>Page scan and stage setlist.</small><br> | |||
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<small>Photos by [[Ken Sharp]].</small><br> | <small>Photos by [[Ken Sharp]].</small><br> | ||
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<br><small>Photos by [[Ken Sharp]].</small> | |||
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<br><small>Cover and contents page.</small> | |||
{{Bibliography notes footer}} | {{Bibliography notes footer}} |
Revision as of 09:14, 17 May 2019
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