Elvis, solo, plays Chicago, June 11 2014

Pretty self-explanatory
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johnfoyle
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Elvis, solo, plays Chicago, June 11 2014

Post by johnfoyle »

Who's going?
bronxapostle
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Re: Elvis, solo, plays Chicago, June 11 2014

Post by bronxapostle »

as King Foyle has said before...WHO'S GOING??? enjoy!
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And No Coffee Table
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Re: Elvis, solo, plays Chicago, June 11 2014

Post by And No Coffee Table »

Several very short videos:

Watching The Detectives: http://vine.co/v/Mjw1zMgrm3W
Everyday I Write The Book: http://‪vine.co/v/Mjwn6IXKXb0‬
Radio Soul: http://‪vine.co/v/MjwweVmQ6KZ‬
Alison: http://‪vine.co/v/MjwwFiwBBHr‬
Less Than Zero: http://‪vine.co/v/Mjwx3YvQQVX‬
(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?: http://‪vine.co/v/MjwYu25Olau‬
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And No Coffee Table
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Re: Elvis, solo, plays Chicago, June 11 2014

Post by And No Coffee Table »

Elvis Costello at the Copernicus Center
By Robert Loerzel
June 11, 2014

Elvis Costello played solo for close to 2 1/2 hours tonight at the Copernicus Center, an old movie palace in Chicago’s Jefferson Park neighborhood. He opened with one of my favorites, “Jack of All Parades,” from his great 1986 album King of America, and later returned to that record for another outstanding selection, “Suit of Lights.” He played most of the hits that you’d expect as well as a lot of obscurities.

Costello talked about his musician father and grandfather, and sang tunes inspired by his family history. He seemed to be in a nostalgic mood. He also reminisced about playing in 2012 at Riot Fest in Chicago’s Humboldt Park: ”There were people down in front taking bets on who we were.” That was a nonstop rock set, to match the festival’s punk vibe. But tonight, Costello was mostly in troubadour mode. Gazing out at the theater’s nocturnal decor, he said, “Tonight, I’m just going to sing songs about the sun and the moon and stars, seeing how I’m here in this particular place.”

At one point, he went over to sit down in a chair. “We’ve come to the part of the show where I’d like to introduce my special guest — and it’s me!”

Costello interjected bits of other songs into his own, putting the Beatles’ “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” in the middle of “New Amsterdam.” And at the end of his first encore, Costello stepped to the lip of the stage and sang a chorus of “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” without the aid of a microphone.

Costello also had a new song, “The Last Year of My Youth,” and he played it twice — an acoustic version midway through the concert followed by a more rocking electric rendition during his first encore. But when it came time for the final song of the night, he went to an old standby, the Nick Lowe song Costello made famous, “(What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding.”
SET LIST

Jack of All Parades / King Horse / Either Side of the Same Town / Sneaky Feelings / Watch Your Step / Veronica / Last Boat Leaving / Ascension Day / medley: New Amsterdam + You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away (Beatles cover) / Come the Meantimes / The End of the Rainbow (Richard Thompson cover) / 45 / The Last Year of My Youth / Walkin’ My Baby Back Home (by Roy Turk and Fred E. Ahlert) / Ghost Train / Man Out of Time / Watching the Detectives / Everyday I Write the Book

FIRST ENCORE: Shipbuilding / For More Tears / Radio Radio / Allison / Earthbound / Stranger in the House / A Slow Drag With Josephine / Suit of Lights / Jimmie Standing in the Rain + ending with a chorus of Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? (by Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney)

SECOND ENCORE: Less Than Zero / The Last Year of My Youth / Couldn’t Call It Unexpected No. 4 / For the Stars / (What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding
Azmuda
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Re: Elvis, solo, plays Chicago, June 11 2014

Post by Azmuda »

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Re: Elvis, solo, plays Chicago, June 11 2014

Post by verbal gymnastics »

Wow! By far the best setlist.

And two versions of the new song. And Watch your step. And CCIU#4. And etc etc 8)
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Re: Elvis, solo, plays Chicago, June 11 2014

Post by And No Coffee Table »

Elvis Costello, Copernicus Center: A pairing that highlighted the stories in the songs

BY MARK GUARINO | FOR CHICAGO SUN-TIMES MEDIA

An evening with Elvis Costello playing 32 songs spanning four decades over two hours and 30 minutes: That probably describes a dream scenario for anyone who’s followed him over the years, but it happened.

At the Copernicus Center Wednesday, the songwriter performed a solo show surrounded by guitars and a keyboard, topped by a lime-green fedora and armed with nothing to promote other than a career of feisty, wordy, and luminous songs.

The Copernicus Center you say? Yes, the venue, an elegant 1,890-seat former movie palace tucked beside I-90 in Jefferson Park, is largely used for events serving Chicago’s Polish community. Bingo night is Thursday.

Costello separated his set into many segments: acoustic and electric, piano balladry, noise mayhem, country blues, the hits. He took familiar songs and spun them around: “Veronica” sung in different keys; “Radio Soul,” a prototype for the later hit “Radio Radio”; “Watching the Detectives” played on a hollow body electric guitar with certain rhythms recorded to a loop while he orchestrated a series of pedals to make the entire song cascade into electronic chaos.

Destroying the familiar to create something new takes confidence, and it was heard in his playing — the defiant strumming, expert vocal phrasing, even generous spaces between notes on his piano. Costello presented the voice of each song’s narrator as a living, breathing person, their complaints and yearnings on full display. This became especially true during the few times he sat at a keyboard: On songs like “Shipbuilding,” “For More Tears,” and later “For the Stars,” he presented his ability to deliver unusual melodies through just his vocal, and let his fingers gently color moods underneath.

On the more musically straightforward material, he paid a strong debt to the Beatles, explaining how, as an eight-year-old member of a Beatles fan club, writing a song (“Veronica”) with Paul McCartney was a treat (“He wrote the good bits”). Then he paid tribute to John Lennon with a full version of “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” dropped in the middle of “New Amsterdam.”

“I’d like to introduce you to a special guest: Me,” he said at one moment. Really, anyone else would have been a disappointment.

With Father’s Day on the horizon, Costello told several stories of his own, as well as a grandfather; both were professional musicians in the dancehall era. “We’re like the Bach family but without good wigs,” he explained. On “Jimmie Standing in the Rain” and “Last Boat Leaving,” two melancholic songs that told the tale of those two men, and the hardship changing times had on his family.

“Some people have accused me of being angry — Those people have never met my grandmother,” he said.

For a performer who could have easily banged out the hits over 90 minutes and called it a day, Costello showed that what lasts longest are stories and the voices telling them.
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Re: Elvis, solo, plays Chicago, June 11 2014

Post by Azmuda »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw0eob1Qcek -- Radio Soul -- 5:14
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u_yTGxZeTw -- Stranger In The House -- 3:42
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W-Bls3hIh0 -- Jimmie Standing In The Rain -- 7:03
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H-_mHzS6KM -- Less Than Zero -- 3:00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WchE0OWKeuA -- Couldn't Call It Unexpected No. 4 -- 4:17
Azmuda wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qcvUGTdKJs -- King Horse -- 2:47
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDz8pumDf3s -- Watch Your Step -- 3:12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-JBI2vJZhc --- Last Boat Leaving -- 3:42
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iinRxBAjdUg -- New Amsterdam -- 0:57
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THwqg-7ySKc -- End Of The Rainbow -- 4:24
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIoLCq8h9LM -- 45 -- 3:10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbXYHfOJLBI -- Walkin' My Baby Back Home -- 1:24
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSnBvFF3EdQ -- Watching the Detectives -- 0:47
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Myr5FF982lI -- Alison -- 2:57
sweetest punch
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Re: Elvis, solo, plays Chicago, June 11 2014

Post by sweetest punch »

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertain ... 2422.story

Concert Review: Elvis Costello at Copernicus Center

Elvis Costello didn't take an easy or predictable route Wednesday at a sold-out Copernicus Center. Seemingly on a mission to connect the common threads of popular music styles from the past century, the singer/guitarist performed a marathon 145-minute show touching on every facet of his adventurous career. Focusing on deep-catalog material, Costello displayed his unwavering commitment to excavating the memories, meanings and mysteries held in song—a pursuit he implied in "45," an ode to the significance of vinyl singles.

To Costello, making his first Chicago-area solo appearance since 1999, ambition and eclecticism have become second nature. Save for heavy metal, he's embraced every major genre. Costello's latest album, a collaboration with hip-hop veterans the Roots, continues a tradition of creative reinvention dating back 35 years. What hasn't changed is his consistency or ability to engage via witty observations, pliable vocals and detailed narratives.

Adorned in a plum-colored suit and pea-green fedora, Costello remained reserved but opened up about family history. He framed the predominantly acoustic set with personal tales, lending context to multiple songs. The Tin Pan Alley shuffle "Jimmie Standing in the Rain" and melancholic ballad "Last Boat Leaving" referenced his grandfather, a former ship musician, while "Veronica" paid tribute to his grandmother. He even cleverly addressed his famous "angry young man" identity through the lens of old-world relatives, which he declared hotter-tempered.

Yet the person foremost on Costello's mind was his late father. Mentioning the trumpeter/singer on several occasions, the 59-year-old recalled apprenticing with his dad's bands in Northern England before rhyming through the cabaret-themed "Ghost Train," an obscure B-side from 1980. The patriarch's influence—and death—extended to Costello's recurring interest in the passage of time. A cover of Richard Thompson's bleak "The End of the Rainbow" and "The Last Year of My Youth," a song Costello wrote just a week ago, tackled such issues with unflinching honesty. He played it twice, with the initial acoustic rendition registering as submissive and the electric more resilient.

Indeed, even when confronting threatening social and political tension ("Come the Meantimes," "Shipbuilding") Costello rarely sounded defeated. Refusing to obtain satisfaction from mundane nostalgia like many contemporaries, he discovered bold protest in machine-gunned rhythms ("King Horse"), innocent romance in whistled melodies (the 1930s jazz ditty "Walkin' My Baby Back Home") and renewed faith in surprise celebrations ("Radio Soul," an unreleased early version of his hit "Radio Radio"). In reflecting a dedication to tracing and reshaping music's ongoing lines of communication, Costello found truth in them all.
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Re: Elvis, solo, plays Chicago, June 11 2014

Post by verbal gymnastics »

Azmuda - thanks for the links. Watch your step is beautiful. That's one I'll be shouting out for in England next month.
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Re: Elvis, solo, plays Chicago, June 11 2014

Post by Emotional Toothpaste »

Anyone notice the chewing gum? Clearly can be seen chewing gum between verses of most songs. What the??
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Re: Elvis, solo, plays Chicago, June 11 2014

Post by brilliantmistake »

Wow, what a setlist, End of the Rainbow!!!!
SoulForHire
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Re: Elvis, solo, plays Chicago, June 11 2014

Post by SoulForHire »

Emotional Toothpaste wrote:Anyone notice the chewing gum? Clearly can be seen chewing gum between verses of most songs. What the??
Keeps the mouth moist when singing. John Lennon used to do it. More recent stars who chew gum while singing include Dave Grohl. Grohl has said its a psychological thing now; he can't sign without gum as he fears his mouth will dry up mid-song.
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Re: Elvis, solo, plays Chicago, June 11 2014

Post by Azmuda »

Seth Saith, Thursday, June 12, 2014
Not Gonna Get Too Sentimental, Elvis Costello Generously Explores His Career Universe at the Copernicus Center -- Chicago Concert Review

Elvis Costello
Copernicus Center, Chicago
June 11, 2014
@@@@@

I just don't know where to begin.

How about by noting that I've enjoyed the music of Elvis Costello since I first came to know it, likely in the mid-'80s.

The first album of his I owned was The Best of Elvis Costello and the Attractions, but while living in L.A. in the early '90s, I binge bought every CD he had released to that point.

Including last night, I have now seen him live six times, and have continued to acquire most of the music he has made.

So it might seem like I'm a pretty big Elvis fan, but I can't say I have extensively explored his entire catalog all that regularly or recently.

My friend Paolo, who also attended the show at the beautiful Copernicus Center--formerly the Gateway Theater and now a focal point for Chicago's vast Polish community--has now seen Elvis Costello nearly 40 times.

Yet I'm sure there were also folks in attendance who had never been before attended one of his concerts.

I explain this in order to empathize with the difficulty an artist like Elvis Costello has in putting together a show that will please his full spectrum of fans.

It's natural to have an affinity for the songs we know best, and tunes like "Watching the Detectives,"
"Man Out of Time," "Radio Radio," "Alison," "Veronica," "Every Day I Write the Book" and "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding" were certainly highlights, enhanced by Elvis performing them plaintively, onstage alone.

Yet I just as much relished hearing long-cherished songs considerably deeper among--or even beyond--his greatest hits: "Jack of All Parades," "Watch Your Step," "Little Palaces," "Suit of Lights," "King Horse," "Sneaky Feelings," "Shipbuilding" and "Couldn't Call It Unexpected No. 4," one of the most beautiful songs the man born Declan MacManus has ever written.

Still, there were a good handful of songs I--and even Paolo--didn't recognize. Thanks to the setlist in this post on UndergroundBee.com, I now know these to to include a couple songs from 2010's National Ransom ("A Slow Drag With Josephine" and "Jimmie Standing in the Rain"), a Richard Thompson cover ("The End of the Rainbow"), "Ascension Day," from Costello's 2005 The River in Reverse collaboration with Allan Touissant, "For The Stars," the title song from his 2001 collaboration with Anne Sofie van Otter and deep album cuts like "Ghost Train" (from Taking Liberties) and "Last Boat Leaving" (from Spike), which--along with "Shipbuilding"--dovetailed nicely with seeing Sting's new musical The Last Ship the night before.

(I was reminded that Sting and Elvis are pretty direct contemporaries from the poppier edge of Brit Punk, with their first singles--The Police's "Fall Out" and "Less Than Zero," which opened Costello's second encore on Wednesday--dropping just a couple months apart in 1977.)

Elvis also played--twice, once with an acoustic guitar, once with an electric--a brand new song called, "The Last Year of My Youth," which he recently debuted on Letterman upon pinch-hitting for Lana del Rey.

I can't say the lesser and unknown songs all tinkled my toes like those I knew and loved, but not only did I not find them a detraction, I actually admired Elvis more as an artist who complemented what a presumptive and divergent "we" wanted to hear with a selection of songs he wanted to present.

And I was happy to be reminded of tunes like "Either Side of the Same Town" (from 2004's The Delivery Man), which could well become a favorite with greater exposure. {Note: Song hyperlinks are to Spotify tracks.}

Especially given that Elvis Costello was on stage for just shy of 2-1/2 hours, I couldn't understand why certain imbeciles in the crowd felt compelled to gutterally shout song requests at him, as though he was working a piano bar. (At one point, he coolly responded to a screaming fan by saying, "Sorry, I'm speaking.")

And just as puzzling was a brief post-show conversation with a friend of a friend of Paolo's, who despite claiming to attend many concerts each month, found this one seemingly just so-so because he "didn't know a lot of the songs."

I certainly cop to curmudgeonly complaining about setlists that seem far too obscure and, as referenced above, such an opinion is formed differently based on one's level of fandom.

But not only have I seen Elvis enough--most recently at an outstanding full-band show Paolo and I caught in Milwaukee in September 2012--that I didn't need to hear "Accidents Will Happen," "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" or "Pump It Up" yet again to find this show terrific, the way he introduced songs and switched up the instrumentation over 145 minutes made just about everything he played intriguing, even exciting.

Sans an opening act, Costello began the show with a string of songs on acoustic guitar including a wonderful intermingling of his "New Amsterdam" with The Beatles "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away."

And just upon me thinking that he wasn't being very verbose, he introduced "tonight's special guest: Me!" and, after sitting down with an acoustic, proceeded to regale to crowd with several anecdotes and multiple remembrances of his father and grandfather, both musicians.

He noted that his dad, who had been a radio dance band singer, had urged the young Declan to grow his hair, but Elvis recalled that he had "wanted to look like Roger Daltrey. But not the Roger Daltrey at Woodstock."

His acoustic rendition of "Man Out of Time," one of my favorite of his songs, was truly resplendent, followed by--on an electric employing wondrous feedback--"Watching the Detectives" and a main set closing "Everyday I Write the Book," which he said he wrote in 10 minutes and hated, but "it became a hit."

A superb "Shipbuilding" started the encores on electric piano, followed by "For More Tears," whose origins I still don't know.

After "Radio Radio," an acoustic "Alison" was absolutely sublime even though Elvis nearly botched the first verse, and luckily no idiots ruined the pin-drop silence that accompanied it.

Although the two encores comprising 14 songs combined classics and obscurities every bit as much as the main set, I especially loved hearing "Suit of Lights" and "Couldn't Call It Unexpected No. 4."

The second encore juxtaposition of Costello's first single, "Less Than Zero" with a reprise of his latest song, "The Last Year of My Youth," confirmed that--in "such a beautiful theater" now named for legendary Polish astronomer Copernicus--Elvis is happy to explore the full space of his astonishing career, even if it means not pulling out all the hits at every tour stop. (This outing will supposedly vary substantially from city to city; Milwaukee got another of my foremost favorites, "Brilliant Mistake" on Tuesday. Still, I have no complaints with what I heard.)

The crowd was rather raucously appreciative all night, and Costello quite gracious. And after closing a generous performance with "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding," we all went home happy.

Or at least I did.

Though Paolo also gave this--his 38th or 39th Elvis Costello concert--a @@@@@ rating.

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Re: Elvis, solo, plays Chicago, June 11 2014

Post by The Gentleman »

Did he identify the "theme" for the evening's set?
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