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Having completed his Bluesfest commitments, Elvis Costello made the trip south to begin his three night stint at the Sydney Opera House last night. Easter Sunday brought with it a full house to the Concert Hall to find a chatty Costello, the wonderful three piece Imposters augmented with special guest Charlie Sexton… and a terribly dead mix that buried Costello's voice with very little distinction and space for any of the instrumentation. Having been in the same room less than a month ago for Angelique Kidjo, I know what this space can deliver, but tonight it just felt like a muddy dirge at times.
Putting all that aside, and it is kind of hard to do because this is a live music experience, the setlist was long and varied, and not designed for the casual Costello listener. Opening the night with "Hetty O'Hara Confidential," the second single off 2020's Hey Clockface, it is an upbeat cut punctuated by Steve Nieve's organ and Sexton's lead guitar, and probably slipped by unrecognisable by most. Three early releases followed with the restrained "Watch Your Step," the '50s rock 'n' roll of "Mystery Dance," and the organ intro of "Radio, Radio" putting a spark under the crowd.
You could feel the energy lift, only to be deflated by a couple of unreleased songs that felt like they were written in the 1950s. Now I am not one of those "only play the hits" punters, and am quite happy to go with the artist on their tangents, but you could feel that the crowd tonight were possibly not so inclined. Of the 28 songs played tonight, six were unreleased with three coming from the music he has written for the A Face In The Crowd musical, and to be honest, those in attendance tonight were quite restrained, with Costello's attempts to get them involved having mostly little effect.
The stripped keys and vocal interpretation of "Accidents Will Happen" was a lovely touch, and worked to perfection for such a strong song. The tempo was slowed, it was heartfelt, and the full band climax was a highlight of the night. But for every successful "Accidents..." remake, there is unfortunately those that can only be called questionable, especially when you are playing with "Watching The Detectives" which became quite dark and menacing with a dub ska tone. It was a seven minute meander that bore very little resemblance to what 99% of those here tonight were hoping for. But as I said earlier, with Costello his shows can be indulgent at times, delivering the unexpected for better or worse.
For myself, it was when the volume was reduced and the delivery was more restrained, for songs such as "A Good Year for the Roses," "Everybody's Cryin' Mercy" and "Brilliant Mistake," that I found that the troublesome sound quality became manageable. There was space for everything to breathe, and I could actually hear Costello's voice. By this time though, we were deep into the night and the electric guitars came back out for "Clubland," and this only highlighted just how poor the sound was. It simply felt like a solid wall of sound. This did not stop the main set closing on a high with "Everyday I Write The Book" which brought the Concert Hall to its feet.
A six-song encore followed, opening with the piano and voice delivered, Costello/Bacharach-penned, "I Still Have That Other Girl." It was the quiet before the stormy squall, with "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea," "Magnificent Hurt" (from 2022's The Boy Named If) and "Pump It Up" again highlighting the messy sound.
Really, it was such a shame. Personally I did enjoy the night simply because I am a longstanding fan of the artist, but I do know I would have enjoyed the night significantly more if I could hear everything clearly. All this being said, and I have been quite reluctant to say anything but positive about such a wonderful musician, I was in full voice as were all around me for possibly Costello's greatest composition, "Alison."
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