Elvis, solo, plays Milwaukee June 10 2014

[johnfoyle]

Who's going?

[The Gentleman]

I'll be going to this one, too.

[And No Coffee Table]

In his Milwaukee show, Elvis Costello might play anything

By Kathy Flanigan of the Journal Sentinel
June 6, 2014

Milwaukee made a chilly first impression on Elvis Costello.

"My first visits were in the winter," he said. "I had no idea how inviting the place would look when you come in summer."

No surprise then that Costello set this trip up for June. Milwaukee is a stop on the solo tour "Last Year of My Youth," which brings Costello to the Riverside Theater on Tuesday. The weather that day, like the set list, is difficult to predict.

"Last Year of My Youth" may or may not refer to Costello's upcoming 60th birthday. It's a retrospective with range beginning with the 1977 "My Aim is True" debut album to last year's "Wise Up Ghost" with The Roots.

For this tour he is without a collaborator and without his longtime band The Imposters.

"I have the freedom in the solo show to tell the story anyway I want," Costello said. He might group together songs dealing with exile and travel and the performing life — a way-of-life experience he shares with his grandfather and father, who were both musicians, and something he does that takes him away from wife, jazz pianist and singer Diana Krall, and the couple's twin 7-year-old sons.

The set list might refer to love and deceit, which is at the heart of another grouping in the Costello songbook. Or the night's show might be inspired by the architecture of the room "which can put you in a certain frame of mind. The room. The pictures on the wall backstage."

"Once you line a few of these up you start to see a story, a theme, that runs through them," he said, hinting that he will play songs that predate "My Aim Is True."

"Some nights it feels right to sing them end on end and some nights it doesn't. It's a little bit of a high wire act that you're not reading off a script."

In some respects, the Costello repertoire is also off script. The angry young man persona was his one shot at getting a record deal. "I had to kind of edit myself to get across. I sang a particular way." Songs were timed to be short. "My Aim Is True" led to "This Year's Model" and all along Costello changed lanes as though he were traveling a cross-country highway.

The angry young man gave way to more nuanced voice stylings. It doesn't make it more difficult to sing songs such as "Welcome to the Working Week" or "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down" but "it's an interesting proposition to sing songs from my career because I have to sneak up on them."

With that kind of inventory, the question also becomes how to please all the fans.

"That sort of enters into the story, too," Costello said. "We found a number of ways to solve this problem." Two years ago Costello brought back the Spectacular Spinning Songbook first used in 1986. He or an audience member turned the giant carnival wheel to pick songs. Hang the set list.

"By the second time we did it (used the wheel), we really did have too much material," he said.

If Costello has been changing lanes musically, he's often brought someone along for the ride. He's worked with Krall, mezzo-soprano Sofie Von Otter, the Brodsky Quartet and Burt Bacharach.

"When it comes to collaborations and writing songs with people I couldn't have imagined writing with Paul McCartney, Allen Toussaint."

Costello and Toussaint, a New Orleans rhythm and blues legend, played Summerfest in 2006 during a tour for "The River in Reverse." "Nobody could have imagined Katrina," he said of the hurricane that devastated Toussaint's hometown in 2005. The fact that Toussaint would tour with him after that "was so inspiring to me."

Costello is again working with Bacharach almost 20 years after "Painted From Memory."

It's lonely on the road without mates or family along but Costello sounds giddy from the previous night's event where he served as master of ceremonies for the PEN New England Song Lyrics Literary Award. He's been honored there before but this year he was helping to usher in Kris Kristofferson and Randy Newman.

Costello had kind words for the assembled crew, T Bone Burnett, Rosanne Cash, Lyle Lovett, Toussaint and Peter Wolf, but he was especially thrilled to share the stage with Randy Newman.

There is history here. Costello said he tried to write like Newman early on in his career. His sons are fans based on the "Toy Story" movie soundtrack. Costello almost "can't wait until they explore Newman and songs like 'Germany Before the War.'"

It makes sense that the once angry young man is a more seasoned performer these days. That one shot at fame turned scattershot. Costello has tried his hand at acting and his television show "Spectacle," a critical hit, lasted two seasons before "time ran out on it."

"I'm quite happy where I am on the stage," he said. "Three generations of musical people. That's what we do."

IF YOU GO
Who: Elvis Costello
When: 8 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Riverside Theater, 116 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Tickets: $44.50 and $60, plus service charges. Visit pabsttheater.org or call (414) 286-3663

[Azmuda]

Milwaukee dress code:



http://www.ebay.com/itm/Milwaukee-River ... 1377524455

[The Gentleman]

Blew a tire en route to Milwaukee. Open question whether I get there at all, let alone live tweet the show. Arghh!!!!

[MOJO]

Bummer... Be safe and get to that show, POSTHASTE!

[FAVEHOUR]

Blew a tire en route to Milwaukee. Open question whether I get there at all, let alone live tweet the show. Arghh!!!!

This is terrible news! Come on, TJ....hope you make it!

Dave

[Azmuda]

http://instagram.com/p/pFbsEawYQD/#

[bronxapostle]

YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!! the gentleman made it there in time for the first song! goody on him. he's tweeting the set again. A+++

[And No Coffee Table]

The setlist, thanks to The Gentleman:

01. Jack Of All Parades
02. Clubland
03. Either Side Of The Same Town
04. Veronica
05. Deportee
06. Brilliant Mistake
07. Ascension Day
08. Quiet About It
09. Payday
10. Mystery Dance
11. Come The Meantimes
12. Walkin' My Baby Back Home - halted halfway and restarted
13. Ghost Train
14. Beyond Belief
15. Kid About It
16. Watching The Detectives
17. Alison
18. Shipbuilding
19. Motel Matches
20. Radio Soul
21. Suit Of Lights
22. A Slow Drag With Josephine
23. Jimmie Standing In The Rain - including Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?
Encore 1
24. Green Shirt
25. Cinco Minutos Con Vos
26. (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
27. The Puppet Has Cut His Strings
28. The Last Year Of My Youth
29. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?

Theme: "enemy within", "travel"

[And No Coffee Table]

And thanks to Dennis for the stage setlist.

[MOJO]

Ohh... Just About Glad. Like that one. Glad to hear the Gentleman arrived on time and safely. Did the crowd meet to the town's reputation of being the "King of Beers."... Pabst was a sponsor so I could see a summertime crowd getting rowdy, even before / during a solo show.

[Azmuda]

Jack Of All Parades - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIHSOhqsh2A
Deportee - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqHT_8AU4TQ
Kid About It - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeWe-p1W5n0
Walkin' My Baby Back Home - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajk0Lp7uss4
Ghost Train - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEOYV0kQY6w
Green Shirt - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5il77gkvMsw
The Puppet Has Cut His Strings - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw9U7wCX30A

[Azmuda]

OnMilwaukee.com
Down by the Riverside: Elvis Costello goes it alone

Bobby Tanzilo
Published June 11, 2014 at 8:03 a.m.

Though he's performed here in recent years in a couple different settings, Elvis Costello stripped it down for a solo performance at the Riverside Tuesday night.

The show was the second night of Costello's "The Last Year of My Youth" solo tour, which wraps up with a pair of nights at no less than Carnegie Hall in New York.

Across more than two hours -- including two encores -- Costello played an eclectic and unexpected mix of material spanning his nearly 40-year recording career.

Given Costello's penchant for trying new things across that career -- from country to chamber music to film scores to a range of interesting collaborations -- the unexpected really is what we expect from Costello.

But if you hoped Costello would reprise the hits during his nearly 30-song performance, you might have been (mostly) disappointed. Though he played "Veronica," "Alison" and "Watching the Detectives," his song selection had a quirkier quality.

Opening with a strong reading of "Jack of All Parades" from 1986's "King of America," he later added a rapid-fire -- and somewhat less satisfying -- version of "Brilliant Mistake," which opened that record and "Suit of Lights."

With at least 29 records to his name -- if you exclude compilations and depending on whether or not you choose to exclude certain things like film scores -- it's safe to say that unless he played one song from each, some career moments would be elided.

But Costello included at least one track from each of the records from the earliest years of his career -- except the country covers disc, "Almost Blue" and, curiously, his second disc, "This Year's Model."

He played "Mystery Dance," "Red Shoes" and "Alison" from his 1977 debut, "My Aim Is True." He played "Green Shirt" from 1979's "Armed Forces," "Motel Matches" from the landmark "Get Happy!!!" and "Clubland" from "Trust."

"Kid About It" and "Beyond Belief" represented "Imperial Bedroom" and he chose the unexpected "Deportee" from 1984's "Goodbye Cruel World."

After that, he dipped in and out of the catalog. He skipped "Blood & Chocolate" and "Mighty Like A Rose" entirely, and played only "Veronica," from "Spike."

Three tunes from his latest record, "Wise Up Ghost," a collaboration with The Roots, made the cut: "Come the Meantimes," "Cinco Minutos Con Vos" and "The Puppet Has Cut His Strings."

Two were plucked from 2010's "National Ransom": "Slow Drag with Josephine" and "Jimmie Standing in the Rain," about his grandfather, a professional trumpet player.

Some moments, Costello sat -- and in his suit and hat, with one leg crossed over the other, he cut a Leon Redbone-like figure, especially when he performed the 1930's Roy Turk ditty, "Walking My Baby Back Home."

Though he started off the night saying little, simply stalking out to the edge of the stage like a tiger, and giving the crowd an almost challenging gaze, Costello's humor soon emerged and he became chatty, talking about his family's musical background and how it affected his music and his songs.

He also talked about his performances in Milwaukee, especially recalling -- as many do -- the winter visits.

For a couple tunes -- most notably "Shipbuilding" -- Costello perched on a stool at an electric keyboard, but mostly, he stood center stage with an acoustic guitar (on only a couple occasions a hollow-body electric) and owned every moment.

He saluted singer/songwriter Jesse Winchester, who died in April, with a pair of tunes: "Payday" -- which he joined with "Mystery Dance" in a medley -- and "Quiet About It."

Though some will quibble with the song choice, most die-hard fans rejoiced at the chance to hear Costello play things like "Ghost Train" and "Radio Soul," a prototype that later became "Radio Radio."

He didn't play any of the things I'd had on my wish list, but hearing the unexpected "Jack of All Parades" and "Motel Matches" surely went a long way toward making up for it.

In the end, the performance reminded us not only of Costello's place in history as a prime mover in late '70s British rock and roll (call it punk, call it new wave, whatever), but that Elvis is without a doubt the most adventurous, most talented songwriter of his generation.

Here is the set list of the show (to the best of my ability)...

Jack of All Parades
Clubland
Either Side of the Same Town
Veronica
Deportee
Brilliant Mistake
Ascension Day
Quiet About It
Payday/Mystery Dance
Come the Meantimes
Walking My Baby Back Home
Ghost Train
Beyond Belief
Kid About It
Watching the Detectives
Alison
Shipbuilding
Motel Matches
Radio Soul
Suit of Lights
Slow Drag With Josephine
Jimmie Standing in the Rain

Encore:
Green Shirt
Cincos Minutos Con Vos
Red Shoes

Encore two:
The Puppet Has Cut His Strings
The Last Year of My Youth
(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding

Photo: Benjamin Wick

[sweetest punch]

http://expressmilwaukee.com/article-234 ... eater.html

Elvis Costello @ The Riverside Theater

For someone who’s usually thought of as a solo artist, Elvis Costello rarely goes it alone. He’s been through at least two official backing bands, the Attractions for much of the 1980s and the Imposters in the 2000s, plus any number of hired studio hands along the way, and, what’s more, has jumped at any and every chance to work with other artists. In fact, in the last decade Costello has released nearly as many collaborative albums as he has solo works, and even those credited to him alone feature the contributions of everyone from Emmylou Harris to the goddamn London Symphony Orchestra. It’s an intriguing proposition then to see how he handles performing live all on his lonesome, as he’s set out to do on his current world tour.

The idea to hit the road by himself certainly didn’t seem to hurt ticket sales in the slightest, but then again his fanbase of middle-aged white folks is pretty loyal, as evidenced by the passionate applause that greeted Costello as he scampered onstage, picked up one of the several waiting guitars and launched, with nary a word, into “Jack of All Parades” from 1986’s King of America. Given the nature of the show, the easy thing to do would be to go through and carefully cherry-pick songs that already lend themselves to stripped-down, singer-songwriter-esque arrangements, but, admirably, the set that followed was diverse and studded here and there with some of his biggest hits, including a surprising number of selections from his flawless 1977 debut, My Aim Is True.

Unsurprisingly with the risky song choices, the results were, overall, a little uneven, so while something simple and sentimental, like “Alison” or the piano-driven “Shipbuilding,” translated more less effortlessly, when he tried something more complicated, like laying down the insistent, rhythmic skank of “Watching the Detectives” using a loop pedal, things got a bit messy. There were other moments that some minor thing or another went wrong too, as when he slipped up and had to restart his sweet rendition of “Walking My Baby Back Home,” which would have passed unnoticed had there been a band there to cover the cracks, but whenever things got a little awkward, Costello, like some seasoned vaudevillian, had a joke at the ready. Ultimately, between that quick-witted stage presence and his time-tested songwriting, Costello doesn’t need much else.

[The Gentleman]

Blew a tire en route to Milwaukee. Open question whether I get there at all, let alone live tweet the show. Arghh!!!!

This is terrible news! Come on, TJ....hope you make it!

Dave

Yep, made it--thanks! Were you there? After my ordeal of a travel day, I hightailed it back to my hotel immediately after the show (which would have been a fine plan if I didn't take a wrong turn downtown).

[FAVEHOUR]

Blew a tire en route to Milwaukee. Open question whether I get there at all, let alone live tweet the show. Arghh!!!!

This is terrible news! Come on, TJ....hope you make it!

Dave

Yep, made it--thanks! Were you there? After my ordeal of a travel day, I hightailed it back to my hotel immediately after the show (which would have been a fine plan if I didn't take a wrong turn downtown).

nope, couldn't get there this time, shame as I haven't seen you in ages! I am going to Nashville, NYC and Delaware this time out.

Dave

[The Gentleman]

nope, couldn't get there this time, shame as I haven't seen you in ages! I am going to Nashville, NYC and Delaware this time out.

Dave

It'd be real nice to catch up with you some time. At the very least, if you ever attend a Minnesota show, please let me know in advance!

[sweetest punch]

A Slow Drag With Josephine / Jimmy Standing In The Rain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhbxBl_axhA