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Wow — Holy shit — it was that great. The lucky Winnipeggers who crammed into the sold-out Playhouse Theatre for Elvis Costello's Wake Up Canada concert got woken up, shaken up, rocked and rolled until the entire house was up, stomping, clapping, letting loose. In years I have seen nothing that could match that night for sheer energy, joy and a fantastic time. A minor sound problem simply had no chance whatsoever to distract from the total success of the evening.
Elvis Costello and the Attractions took to the stage in front of an audience already charged by the still-Battered Wives.
Elvis managed to bring the feel of an intimate club performance into the quite cozy Playhouse, snarling, whispering, choking, yelling, screaming his underdog's accusation against a hostile world and obviously he struck a sympathetic chord as he rocked through the stepped up pace of all his best songs, never wasting time, no rest for applause but delivering and delivering.
The Attractions kept the rhythm relentlessly alive, the keyboard man attacking his instrument with the twisted furious moves while Elvis screeched out biting guitar licks, twisting and shaking with the music.
An overwhelming sight, this slender, almost insignificant looking man raising such power and energy. And I can't help but admire how much the man does with so comparatively little, no flashbombs, special effects or bullshit, just good taste and a seemingly unlimited imagination.
Elvis's stageshow was impressively supported by the excellent use of lights, sometimes coloring him an eerie blood red against a soft green glow covering the band, sometimes enclosing all four musicians in a three dimensional cage of light-bars.
The mission of the Battered Wives — thank god they stuck to their name — is to create energy that makes people move, that hits their bodies before it hits their minds. And Elvis' support act succeeded admirably. They hit the stage right on time, another Winnipeg first, and raunched their way through a powerful set of songs, most of them from their excellent album.
The B.W. manage to lace their aggressive punk stance with enough genuine humour and fun to make themselves accessible and entertaining. As they bobbed, hopped, growled, danced, strutted around the stage, their drummer, Clive, looking too spastic to play but hitting like a young Keith Moon, they displayed a spectacle unseen before and readily approved. Their powerhouse version of Ian Drury's "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll" brought the crowd roaring to their feet.
By the end of the night the house positively exploded with cheers and applause, an ovation so powerfully sustained, it rivaled the output of the bands, and so a satisfied audience and thrilling performers all agreed it was a hell of a night.
Except it was not the end of the night yet, as a lucky crowd of Fuse fans at the St. Vital found out. Tipped off by some local, Elvis and the B.W. decided to drop in, immediately to be applauded with cheers and hollering. The Fuse got a real boost and took off to heights as yet unscaled and Elvis had a good time being at the receiving end.
When the Fuse launched into "(I'm Not) Angry" I asked him how he, a relatively new arrival in the big times, felt hearing his songs played by young bands.
Says he: "Well, It doesn't do to me what an original by someone else does, ah, I'm too close to those tunes, I put all my feelings into them. For me it's not the same because of that. But ... ah it's very flattering to hear these guys, it's flattering because they do it well and I can see the kids are happy."
Well, thus flattered, Elvis took to the stage, and backed up by his drummer and his bass man proceeded to lift the roof off the St. Vital. With unfamiliar equipment, no soundcheck and minus his keyboards, he turned out two beautiful sets for an audience so high and happy they were dancing on the chairs, on the tables, in the aisles, and in the cans.
Most "Rock Stars" would consider it lowering themselves to do what Elvis did, stand in front of a bunch of people without the security of their usual rock 'n' roll hocus pocus and maybe risking a bad sound. But he pulled it off, he sounded great and he proved to an ecstatic crowd that he can and will play rock 'n' roll extraordinaire anywhere.
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