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After a few years of more mellow music-making, English singer Elvis Costello has returned to his role as rock's angry young man. A couple years ago at Berkeley's Greek Theater he ended his show with Nick Lowe's optimistic "What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding."
Friday night at the outdoor 8,500-seat Greek (which was crammed with more than 9,000 fans) Costello sang, "Take a look outside the nursery door / There's nothing at the end of the rainbow / There's nothing to grow up for anymore."
Most of the two hour, 33-song presentation was almost too fast and furious to keep up with.
As Costello on electric guitar and his three-piece band the Attractions churned out each song, with only a beat's pause between tunes, the effect on the listener was of being on an aural roller coaster ride, so dizzying that your ears hang on for fear of falling off.
Music ranged from his biggest hit in some years, 1983's "Everyday I Write the Book," to 1977's "Alison" and "Watching the Detectives." He also included most of his current, 10th album, Goodbye Cruel World, which sounded far more lively in person.
In recent times Costello has included so much variety in his shows — country, crooning ballads, soul and introspective tunes — that the pace was often discarded in favor of eclecticism. Friday, on the second-to-last stop of his tour, there were a few ballads, but most of the show was fast, fast, fast.
Costello did a solo concert a few months back here, but it's hard to imagine most of Friday's songs without the Attractions providing rock fervor and mini-orchestral grandeur.
Keyboardist Steve Nieve is now going under the name Maurice Worm. He, bassist Bruce Thomas and drummer Pete Thomas have been with Costello since the beginning. For this tour Gary Barnacle was added on sax.
For his part, Costello dressed in black, even to his porkpie hat and glasses, ones that formerly sported black frames but now feature black lenses.
He included such rosy fare as "Shipbuilding," his comment on the Falklands war, James Brown's "I Got You (I Feel Good)," the new "Sour Milk-Cow Blues," and "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down." There was also a strange but powerful medley of the Byrds' "So You Want to Be a Rock 'N' Roll Star," "Girls Talk" and "You Belong to Me."
One of the highlights was his pedal-to-the-floor version of the first Elvis' (Presley) hit, "His Latest Flame."
While the pace was frantic and Costello had plenty of cynical comments directed at the rest of the world, he was quite friendly and warm toward his audience.
Introducing "Worthless Thing," Costello compared television and MTV in particular, to a previous use of music as novelty entertainment exemplified by Harry "The Hipster" Gibson's 1944 "Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine?", Costello commented that we've progressed with television to the point where "it brings us social relevance like 'Layin' It on the Line' and 'Mick and Slick in '88.'"
In the new "Peace in Our Time" Costello updated the Neville Chamberlain slogan, adding such lines as "There's already one spaceman in the White House what do you want another one for?"
Costello was one of the most original social commentators in the late '70s English punk rock milieu. Today he remains in top form, providing a strong alternative to the current trend of music as strictly entertainment.
This concert was made better by the inclusion of Costello's former producer Nick Lowe as opening act. A former pub-rock figure, Lowe was making records when Costello was still in school and continues to crank out a large number of highly crafted pure pop tunes. His band, now going under the name His Cowboy Outfit, is the same he has used for some time, including drummer Bobby Irwin, Paul Carrack of Squeeze on keyboards and Rumour guitarist Martin Belmont.
With a couple of exceptions, Lowe's show used the same tunes he has drawn on in the past: "Heart of the City," "I Knew the Bride When She Used to Rock and Roll" and "Stick It Where the Sun Don't Shine." Carrack reprised his two hits from his former groups, Squeeze and Ace, "Tempted" and "How Long Has This Been Going On," which subtly shifted in mid-song into a reggae-dub instrumental number.
Not only was it Lowe's best local show in years, it was the first time he received a standing ovation in his slot as opener for other stars.
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