|
It’s a sunny and hot Sunday when Elvis Costello & The Imposters come to the Tonhalle Duesseldorf. The venue is not sold out at all. A newspaper estimated about 400 people afterwards.
It’s a pity to see many empty chairs. Shortly before the start the people sitting above are told by the ushers to get a nearer spot wherever they want which is nice (for the audience and the performing artist).
Elvis Costello and his three men band The Imposters (Steve Nieve on keyboard/piano, Pete Thomas on drums, Davey Faragher on bass) come on stage and begin to play immediately. There are a lot of photographers in the circular outer corridor going from one side to the other, getting their pictures and leaving after a while almost altogether… a bit distracting, but at least not for long.
So, what is to expect of the evening? An Elvis Costello playing a small crowd and running through a short set to leave soon? An Elvis Costello going easy on his voice as he has/had a throat infection (he even had to cancel the concert in Offenbach the week before…)?
But no, not at all!
First of all, even though the audience is not that big, it is a very great one. The enthusiasm, clapping and screaming keeps up with an audience twice as big (and I’ve seen some of those audiences that made a rather bad impression). So, the quality of the audience compensates the quantity for sure.
And Costello doesn’t go easy on his voice at all, he sings powerfully and plays his many changing guitars. He seems to have fun. His voice is strong, yet he often takes a sip from a cup (maybe tea?) and eats bonbons every now and then.
The band sounds good. In the beginning the acoustics in the room seem not right, but it gets better soon. An essential part of each song is pianist Steve Nieve who is so great on piano and organ.
While Costello sings “She” the famous song from the movie “Notting Hill” he leaves the stage and comes to the audience. He is as close as he can get. And he seems to like it down here as he even sings a second and third song before going back up. For the second song “Almost Blue” he sits down on an empty chair to the surprise and pleasure of his surroundings. When walking on a young woman gives him a kiss on the hand which he cannot let go unresponded, so he gives her immediately a kiss on the hand in return. During the third song he crosses the first row though it’s rather narrow there.
After the regular set, when they come back for the encore, almost all people in the audience stand and will not sit down till the end. Elvis and band play a rather long encore (longer than planned when believing the paper setlist’s second page). Unfortunately no complete setlist of the played songs has emerged (at least not on setlist.fm). The played setlist was different on a few spots from the paper setlist, that’s all I know, but I cannot name the differences. For instance, he has also played “My Three Sons” in the regular set.
Sometimes Elvis makes gestures not clear how to be interpreted. For instance, one finger in the air meaning “one more song”? Each time he does it, the audience cheers. Yet, very late I think I get it, when on the very back a woman cries “Alison”. He probably would have liked to get song requests from earlier on (?). At least they immediately play “Alison” as response to the call.
The last songs of the evening are: “Alison”, “Radio, Radio”, “Pump It Up” and finally “(What’s so funny ‘bout) Peace, Love and Understanding”.
My personal highlights of 2¼ hours Elvis Costello & The Imposters: “Everyday I Write The Book”, “Little Triggers”, “Oliver’s Army”, “My Three Sons”, pianist Steve Nieve, Elvis among the audience, an intense 10 minutes version of “I Want You” (!) as last song of the regular set, and of course the last four songs of the evening.
| 
