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Chicago's Ravinia is the perfect concert venue for people who don't like to go to concerts. With its capacious outdoor lawn seating and BYOB policy, it leaves plenty of room for you to sprawl out on the grass and crack a few beers with some friends. Unfortunately, if you actually enjoy seeing something while you're at a show… well, you may just have to learn to live with disappointment. Ravinia is the only place I've ever attended where the stage under the pavilion is actually below ground level. Even the LCD screens are too low to see over the crowd.
Fortunately, the band still sounded excellent. British singer/songwriter Elvis Costello buckled down for an evening of rambling Americana. Although backed by his latest studio ensemble, The Sugarcanes, Costello's two-hours-and-change performance was surprisingly light on material from 2009's Secret, Profane and Sugarcane. The bulk of his set consisted of re-workings of classic Costello songs, as well as a bevy of covers, such as Elvis Presley's "Mystery Train," a Rockabilly'd-out rendition of Chuck Berry's "Don't You Lie to Me" and The Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale," re-imagined as a soothing country Waltz.
For the most part, Costello's concert standards played well in the hands of his new outfit. My favorite moment of the evening came early on with "The Delivery Man." The song sounded sharper and more ominous than the recorded version, and Costello's voice approached a snarl as he spat out the final refrain and the whole thing combusted into a searing jam. Aside from that magnesium-flash of intensity, however, the rest of the concert unfolded much as one would expect: a seasoned performer, backed by a cadre of consummate professionals, giving an expert rendering (or in most cases, re-rendering) of several well-written songs. Staunch Costello-ites in the audience were doubtless thrilled to watch such a skilled craftsman re-interpreting some of his best material. For a more casual fan such as myself, it made for an enjoyable, if not especially memorable, performance, one suited to the casual atmosphere of the venue.
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