Elvis Costello at Royce Hall

March 30, 2003

Elvis Costello played two nights at Royce Hall this week, his final commitment to UCLA as an “Artist in Residence.” Costello used the classy venue as an opportunity to slow it down and play two nights filled with ballads, torch songs, soul numbers and jazzy renditions of older songs.

Normally, when rock artists try and expand their horizons, it becomes a pretty awful mess. Now, not everything Elvis has done has glowed, but his work with the Juliet Letters, his acoustic tour with Steve Nieve and his side project with Burt Bacharach have all helped hone his skills to a finer degree. In particular, Elvis has become one hell of a singer. It may not have the smoothest timbre, but Costello has remarkable power, and a fine sense of phrasing and delivery. He loves resinging lyrics a little differently each time as well as backing off the microphone and singing with different degrees of amplification.

The setlists for both nights were pretty interesting, as Costello paid more attention to later, post Blood and Chocolate work. One of my favorites from the first night was “Deep Dark Truthful Mirror” which had an extended middle where Elvis blended it into the Motown classic “You Really Got a Hold On Me.” Older tracks like “Man Out of Time” and “High Fidelity” were great, and the Bacharach co-written “God Give Me Strength” has potential to become a real classic. On the second night, Elvis played “Couldn’t Call It Unexpected No. 4″ as well as a new song called “When It Sings,” which seemed to allude to his recent breakup with Cait O’ Riordan. Great stuff that happened both nights included the slow burning “My Dark Life,” and the solo, acoustic and completely unplugged “Still Too Soon To Know.” For that number, Elvis stood on the side of the stage and sang without a microphone, filling a completely silent hall with just his voice and guitar. For both nights he closed with the anti-war pair of “Shipbuilding” and “What’s So Funny (About Peace, Love and Understanding)” and then the recent ballad “I Want To Vanish.”

This was a brilliant set of shows, but I’m looking forward to his next tour where he’ll get back to the full rocking rhythm show with the Imposters. It seems silly to have one of the finest rock drummers in the land in Pete Thomas back there playing with brushes.

Setlists follow (credit to Nunki from the Elvis Costello Mailing List):

Posted in From Blown Speakers