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Napoleon Dynamite told the crowd that his astrological sign was Taurus, that he likes driving in his car with his baby listening to Teddy Pendergrass and that he is often mistaken for Elvis Costello. "Actually, I just look like him," he said.
Dynamite served as host, while his alter-ego played bandleader and vocalist Thursday on "The Spectacular Spinning Songbook," part two of an ambitious three-night series of concerts by Costello that ended last night at the Warfield Theater.
A giant wheel with the titles of 40 songs loomed over the right-hand side of the stage. Stationed on the opposite side, adjacent to a go-go booth, was a portable bar outfitted with TV and Gatorade. Dynamite entered from the back of the hall and walked down the center aisle, explaining how the concert would work.
Participants were selected from the audience, led to the stage by an usher wearing an awful wig and a tuxedo, then they spun the wheel to determine what song Costello and his band, the Attractions, would play. They then either retired to the onstage bar to watch the song being performed or they danced to it in the go-go cage.
Costello's send-up of TV game shows displayed a rare abundance of his dry wit, something he has kept largely under wraps in the past. As Napoleon Dynamite, the often supercilious Costello could be downright ingratiating, chumming it up with the folks from the audience, goofing with his buddy Huey Lewis, who helped host the second half, and even threatening at one point to sing a 2½ hour medley of Bryan Ferry hits.
The wheel was stocked with Costello favorites from throughout his nine-year recording career, along with a few zingers like Prince's "Pop Life" or Tom Petty's "American Girl." When the old Gerry & The Pacemakers hit, "Ferry Cross the Mersey," came up a second time, the crowd voted for another spin.
Ironically, the second spin landed on "Watching the Detectives," which had also come up before, but this time Costello and company merrily launched into a slightly different version of the song, rather than go for a third spin.
Costello and the band never hesitated, slamming into the songs almost as soon as the title came to rest over the red light, virtually becoming a living jukebox. As might be expected, the concert program was a madcap mix, a hodge-podge of "Less Than Zero" from his first album and "Blue Chair" from his latest, from his hit single, "Everyday I Write the Book" to the explosive "Radio, Radio," which fortuitously came up on the evening's final spin.
It all should have been more fun than it was. The songs seemed short and the time in between seemed long. It took an hour to complete eight spins and songs. And the humor never really came across, as the joke turned out to be in the concept, not the execution.
Costello took a stunning six-song solo turn on acoustic and electric guitars in between halves of the game show spoof, mixing his own songs like "The Only Flame in Town" and "Radio Sweetheart" with the Hollies' "King Midas in Reverse" and the Beatles' "Yes It Is."
Huey Lewis brought a more easy-going manner to the hosting chores, but even he seemed to sense how fruitless the frivolity was. "I'm ruining myself in my own hometown," he kidded. "I'm up here making an ass of myself."
But it was a valiant effort to bring something new to the staid and largely uninventive world of rock concerts, a worthy experiment at levity that underlined the daring nature of the entire three-night presentation. Costello engaged in some admirable anti-typecasting with his Napoleon Dynamite character and consciously tried to break down stereotypes.
Costello and the Attractions finished the evening with a handful of well chosen encore selections, including a blues duet with Lewis on Sonny Boy Williamson's "Help Me" and "(What's So Funny About) Peace, Love and Understanding," the song the most people said they wanted to hit on the wheel. Oddly enough, none of the songs the wheel-spinners said they wanted came up the entire evening, but that's the luck of the draw.
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