Elvis makes a year end `best of ` at last!

Pretty self-explanatory
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johnfoyle
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Elvis makes a year end `best of ` at last!

Post by johnfoyle »

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stori ... 51578.html

So here are my rankings for Las Vegas' top headliners of 2003. The first three earned 5-star ratings from the Sun.

1. The White Stripes at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel, Sept. 20: Who knew two people could make such an excellent racket? The Stripes live up to their considerable hype in their Vegas debut.

2. Neil Young & Crazy Horse at The Joint, July 26: Young bags his "Greendale" production for a monstrous romp through one of rock's preeminent catalogs.

3. Elvis Costello at The Joint, July 18: Elvis is King for a night, blazing through a series of enduring classics.
4. Willie Nelson at House of Blues at Mandalay Bay, Dec. 5: A night of country music reverence, both by and for 70-year-old Willie Nelson.

5. Sigur Ros at The Joint, April 5: Jon Thor Birgisson's anguished voice drove my wife to tears. In a good way.

6. Interpol at Huntridge Theatre, Oct. 4: Indie scenesters bring debut album to life.

7. Dee Dee Bridgewater, Clark County Government Center Amphitheater, July 7: Henderson's own emerges with a breathtaking Jazz in the Park performance.

8. Duran Duran at The Joint, July 17: The original lineup sounds like ... the original lineup in this early reunion outing.

9. String Cheese Incident at Cox Pavilion, Oct. 31: Halloween fun, from a band that treats its fans right.

10. Norah Jones at The Joint, Aug. 18: A classy set from this year's Grammy Award-winning smash.
cbartal
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Post by cbartal »

Why do I get the feeling that if Enya would have played at "The Joint", she would have made the top ten too?

Sorry, I'm just being feisty. I'm drunk, lonely, and full of it...
laughingcrow
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Post by laughingcrow »

I was at that...and can whole heartedly agree it was the best Elvis Ive ever seen...Steve Nieve said on his site it was the best gig of the tour. The whole place was buzzing, and he just banged out classic after classic..no speaking of course (he never seems to in the US does he, maybe too many people would whoop) but it didn't make a difference.
Misha
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Post by Misha »

LC,

I was there rockin too!!! It was an amazing concert. Drove from Vegas to Berkeley for the next night's concert....they got ripped off. He only played an hour. He musta been tired. But I had front row, so you get no complaints from me!!

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
Where are the strong?

Who are the trusted?
johnfoyle
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Post by johnfoyle »

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainmen ... 1599c.html

Top Concerts

Rosanne Cash at Joe's Pub.

Joe Jackson Band at Irving Plaza.

Annie Lennox at The Apollo.

Bob Dylan at the Hammerstein Ballroom (with special guest Nils Lofgren).

Iggy Pop and the Stooges' reunion at Jones Beach.

Elvis Costello at Town Hall.

The Mars Volta at Roseland.

Fleetwood Mac in Atlantic City.

Calvin Richardson at Radio City.
johnfoyle
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Post by johnfoyle »

cbartal
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Post by cbartal »

johnfoyle wrote:http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/20031226 ... 26fnp7.asp

46. Elvis Costello "North"
46 !!

That's pretty high!!

Did Human League not release an album this year?
johnfoyle
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Post by johnfoyle »

http://www.news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1415422003

Musically, there were two high notes this year. The first was seeing Tony Bennett perform in Glasgow’s George Square in July.

At 76, Bennett is the last of a dying breed of old school jazz and pop stylists. He’s a superb showman who exudes a contagious joie de vivre while simultaneously, and seemingly effortlessly, illustrating why the human voice is the perhaps the greatest musical instrument.

For my money, that last is a quality shared by Elvis Costello, who, to my great delight, seems determined not to let a year pass without paying a visit to Scotland.

Just looking at that yard or more of succulent flesh is enough to get my juices going

This October’s appearance prompted my third trip to Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall to catch his act. It was perhaps the 15th or 20th time I’ve seen him since the first fast and furious (literally) set he played at my university in the late 1970s (done and dusted in 45 minutes, no encores).

This year fate smiled on me and I was able to buy seats in the fourth row, where I spent a few blissed-out hours watching a jet-lagged Costello and Steve Nieve, just back from Japan, play their hearts out. Their four encores ultimately lasted longer than the initial, wonderful set.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/toda ... 03s1.shtml

Nearly as big as Bowie was an evening in April at Bard College in Annandale that featured Elvis Costello and the Charles Mingus Orchestra. Costello seemed more at home singing jazz than he ever did performing rock when he and the Mingus Orchestra gave a concert that helped celebrate the opening of the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, a colossal new theater with an architectural style that is as interesting and dynamic as the artists who perform inside of the venue.
johnfoyle
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Post by johnfoyle »

http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?i ... ssueNum=30


Rock ’n’ Roll Suicidal
by Chris Morris

Yes, I know: The list of the top albums of 2003 below
is heavily laden with work by morose or
semi-depressive singer-songwriters. Maybe it was just
in the water; I hope I can get the tap turned off in
2004. Or maybe the tilt of my choices was determined
by a slimness of the rock ’n’ roll field this year.
Only two bands managed to make my cut; while several
other rockers – Paul Westerberg, the Black Keys, Jet,
the Dirtbombs – made highly entertaining albums, it
was the solitary tortured souls who connected. The
echoes of two artists who passed this year also
reverberated loudly.
------------------------------------------------------

3. Elvis Costello, North (Deutsche Grammophon). After
about a decade-long siege of mannered and distant
work, Costello charted the fall of one affair and the
sweet flowering of another in a recording that
displays a wealth of honest and unexpected passion.

-------------------------------------------------------

The Sydney Morning Herald also liked
North-
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/ ... 09346.html

Speaking of the old fellows, still outshining the
competition, although he confused most critics by
making an album that did not fit any of their frames
of reference, Elvis Costello crafted a record of
pre-rock popular music (North) that will last.
cbartal
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Post by cbartal »

While I admire the chutzpah it took for Morris to recognize North for the masterpiece that it is, when I see him mention Westerberg in the same breadth it kind of takes the wind out of his sails... As a devoted fan whose been waiting for PW to live up to his talents for years, I find it hard to believe he finds Tremble as anything more than another washed up indie relic.
johnfoyle
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Post by johnfoyle »

From l-listserv.- E.W. requires money if you want to see the original link.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Entertainment Weekly list EC best and worst..make up your mind


ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

MUSIC-10 best songs of 2003

Elvis Costello ''North'' (album; Deutsche Grammophon) Costello took
his cues from Sinatra's gorgeously despondent late-'50s concept albums but went Frank one better, giving the balladic despair an arc and a shock ending: unprecedented (for him) romantic ebullience.

MUSIC -5 worst songs of 2003

Elvis Costello ''North'' (album; Deutsche Grammophon) ''Someone took
the words away,'' he sings at one point. Someone also took away the
melodies, the tension, and the drive of ''When I Was Cruel'' and replaced them with an interminable barrage of lugubrious cabaret jazz. There's music to clear the room, and then there's this -- music to make the room fall into a deep slumber.
johnfoyle
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Post by johnfoyle »

http://tbrnews.com/display/inn_stepping_out/step4.txt

Elvis Costello 'North'

This work contains beautiful piano-driven pieces and sorrowful lyrics of love gone lost. Costello enlists the talent of one of my favorite drummers, Peter Erskine.
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