For their 2011 tour, Elvis Costello and The Imposters revived an idea that Costello tried in 1986. Billed as the “Spinning Songbook Tour”, this tour didn’t have the guest MCs and musicians that the 1986 tour had (with the exception of one of the Los Angeles shows: check out this clip of The Bangles performing “Tear Off Your Own Head (It’s a Doll Revolution)” here). The idea was simple. Costello (under his “Napoleon Dynamite” guise, an alias he first introduced in 1986 on the back cover of the Blood and Chocolate album) himself was the MC while various audience members were pulled from the audience to spin the wheel. The wheel itself featured many songs from Costello’s recent and not-so-recent back catalog along with some well-chosen covers and jackpot options as well. We’ll get to these later, though.
It should be stated that there was real concern that this show would have to get rescheduled. The Montclair, NJ date of the tour was canceled several nights before this concert with Elvis claiming that he had contracted bronchitis. Whether this was true or not, anyone who saw this show would’ve never known it because he sounded absolutely great.
For the first four songs, Costello and his band took the stage and blazed through four songs, opening with “I Hope You’re Happy Now” from the aforementioned Blood and Chocolate with the wheel and several go-go dancers in a cage as well. Visually, it was like a take on either Las Vegas or Little Steven‘s Underground Garage Festival, depending on your point-of-view. The musical focus, however, was on Costello’s early catalog and thus this was definitely a rockin’ show.
After a rousing “Radio Radio”, the wheel’s first two spins landed on two of my very favorite songs in the entire Costello catalog (“Human Hands” from 1982’s Imperial Bedroom and “Living in Paradise” from 1978’s This Year’s Model). Right after this, the wheel landed on the “Time” jackpot. What did this mean? Well, songs with the word “time” in it were played. They were, as follows, “Clowntime is Over,” “Strict Time,” “Man Out of Time” and a cover of The Rolling Stones‘ “Out of Time”. Though I’d prefer the faster version of “Clowntime is Over” instead of the alternate ballad version that Costello has always favored in his live performances of this song since the early ’80s, this was still a great stretch of songs.
Another highlight of the main set was when the wheel landed on “Watching the Detectives” and “Hoover Factory” simultaneously. Though the former is a well-known staple, I was very psyched to hear the latter as like with many of the other songs he played, I’d never seen him play these songs live though I’ve now seen him perform 20 times since the mid ’90s.
The only real misstep in this concert came during the first encore. After a costume change, Costello came out and played several songs from his 2010 album National Ransom. Honestly, they were boring and totally deadened the mood of the show, at least for a few songs. After the first song, it even inspired an obnoxious heckler to yell “play something we wanna hear”. I hate to say this, but though I wouldn’t yell something as obnoxious as that, I was certainly thinking along similar lines. I have nothing against Costello or any other veteran artist sneaking in new songs though fans inevitably wanna hear the oldies, but these songs just didn’t work with the style of the rest of the show.
Fortunately, the concert recovered considerably during the second encore. This was where the hits really came out. We got “(I Don’t Want to Go to) “Chelsea,” “Everyday I Write the Book,” “Pump It Up” and even a version of The Who‘s “Substitute” before his long-time closer, his timeless and always prescient cover of Nick Lowe‘s (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding”.
Overall, this show had an energy that I haven’t seen from any Costello performance his a show I saw on the When I Was Cruel tour in July 2002 at Convention Hall in Asbury Park, NJ. Suffice it to say, I was quite impressed.
The setlist can be viewed here along with links to some video of the show and what not.
