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On his current tour, Elvis Costello is introducing the Attractions as "the best band in the world," which must surprise some fans who have been following Costello's recent career moves. After all, he used a group of veteran American musicians on his King of America album earlier this year — the first time he had recorded with a band other than the Attractions since his 1977 debut.
Some thought that he felt constrained by the limitations of his longtime British backing trio, and Costello himself expressed some disatisfaction with his earlier records. For this tour, which concluded its three-day stand at the Riviera last night, he decided to play some shows with the Attractions, and others with the Confederates, featuring many of the musicians from King of America.
The three very different Chicago concerts, using two different bands, proved instructive as well as wildly entertaining. His Sunday night show with the Confederates found Costello backed by a group of brilliant individual talents, who were able to slip easily and comfortably into whatever ready-made forms the music might assume. Costello was able to move from pure country to pure rhythm & blues to pure rock 'n' roll in a way that he never could with the Attractions.
At last night's show, Elvis Costello and the Attractions — featuring the inventive keyboards of Steve Nieve over the sturdy rhythms of drummer Pete Thomas and bassist Bruce Thomas — put their own twist on everything they touched. The contrast between the Confederates and the Attractions was the difference between a great group of musicians and a great rock 'n' roll band. Although the Attractions don't boast any musicians who can compare with Confederates guitarist James Burton, the band's powerful, distinctive backing made Costello's boast ring true.
Last night's concert was dominated by material from Costello's new Blood & Chocolate album, which reunited him with the Attractions, and which represents his most urgent and immediate music since the late '70s.
On Sunday, he had played his new "Tokyo Storm Warning" single in a slowed-down, solo acoustic form. After particularly oblique passages, he had stopped the song and explained the literal inspiration. Until then, I hadn't known that "Japanese God-Jesus robots" was more than mad wordplay.
Last night, he and the Attractions played the same song as a hard-edged, full-tilt rocker, and the furious intensity of the music was its own message. As on earlier tours, the band blistered its way from song to song with barely a break, interspersing plenty of familiar favorites among most of the material from the new album. The most conventional of Costello's Chicago concerts, it was also the best paced and most energized.
On his third day in town, Costello finally heard his first boos. They came when he announced that this was the last Chicago show. Where many rockers so quickly exhaust their creativity along with their welcome, Costello and his keep-it-fresh tour could have played the Riviera for a month.
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