UC Santa Barbara Daily Nexus, June 5, 1978: Difference between revisions
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As said before, Elvis was surprisingly progressive. Most New Wave bands dispense with musicianship as just so much excess “polish." Elvis, however, is an experimental type. There were a few short moments Friday where, if I’d closed my eyes, I could have been at a Pink Floyd concert. Though his guitar playing is crude even by rock standards, Elvis made up in imagination what he lacked in technique. “Detectives,” a haunting tale of a love homicide, had an intro that could have come from a sixties' spy movie. | As said before, Elvis was surprisingly progressive. Most New Wave bands dispense with musicianship as just so much excess “polish." Elvis, however, is an experimental type. There were a few short moments Friday where, if I’d closed my eyes, I could have been at a Pink Floyd concert. Though his guitar playing is crude even by rock standards, Elvis made up in imagination what he lacked in technique. “Detectives,” a haunting tale of a love homicide, had an intro that could have come from a sixties' spy movie. | ||
Other songs showed a similar knack for creating a distinct picture with a minimal amount of effort. "Lipstick Vogue” was one of the spaciest, and strongest, | Other songs showed a similar knack for creating a distinct picture with a minimal amount of effort. "Lipstick Vogue” was one of the spaciest, and strongest, New Wave songs I've ever seen performed. It began with a burst of drum shots from Thomas, then slowed down to an eerie, organ-held drone. Then with green backlights lighting up his face like a vampire. Elvis recited a condemning lyric and then left the mike to play one more buzzing chorus, finishing his solo with some reverberating feedback. Taken as a whole the song left me like I'd just had my rope cut on a space walk, while the last line ''"Sometimes I almost feel, Just like a human being"'' kept orbiting my helmet. | ||
For rock headliners, Costello and the Attractions cut rather odd figures onstage. Rock performers in recent times have seemed more concerned with transmitting sex appeal than talent. Not so with Costello. Dressed down in his usual horn-rim glasses, cheap blue blazer and unkept hairstyle, he wasn't out there for your love or sympathy. Even so, he appeared in better health than most New Wave death wishers. The Attractions, however, looked more like extras from ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' than rock musicians. And it's about time. There hasn't been a decent band of uglies since the Stones. | |||
Contrary to expectations, Elvis didn't spit and sneer his way through his songs. The only contorted faces appeared on the lines that dealt with genuine anger. During his attack on today's female trendsetters "This Year's Girl," he scowled as he listed off ''"Those disco synthesizers, those daily tranquilizers, these body building prizes, those bedroom alibis, All this and no surprises from this year’s girl."'' | |||
On the rest of the songs he accompanied the lyrics with | |||
Revision as of 06:12, 6 December 2018
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