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Elvis points 'North' -- Costello devotes much of Town
Hall show to his newest CD

Wednesday, September 24, 2003

BY JAY LUSTIG
Star-Ledger Staff

NEW YORK -- Elvis Costello's Monday night show at Town
Hall took place on the eve of the release of his new
album, "North." Yet it would be hard to imagine an
event that ranked lower on the fanfare scale.

Throughout the show, he was backed only by his
longtime keyboardist, Steve Nieve, and he didn't even
play his guitar on the "North" material. Nieve left
the stage at one point, and Costello presented solo piano-and-vocal versions of three songs. For the final number, "Couldn't Call It Unexpected, No. 4," Costello sang with no amplification.

There were no visual gimmicks, and Costello even
joked, during "God's Comic," that the show didn't have
a high enough budget for someone to kill the lights,
for theatrical effect, when he sang the line, "turn
out the light."

Costello managed to dazzle in the unflashy setting,
though, warmly crooning 10 songs from "North" -- his
first full-length cabaret-style album -- and
performing scaled-down versions of tunes from
throughout his career.

He rocked at times, muscularly strumming a distorted
acoustic guitar on songs like "45," "Tart" and
"(What's So Funny'Bout) Peace, Love and
Understanding?" There was just as much tension and
release in "Rocking Horse Road" and "Radio Silence" as
there would have been with a full band. But most of
the numbers were in a more calm, thoughtful mode.

"North" is a soul-searching song cycle about losing
love, then finding it again. While it does display
some of Costello's trademark cleverness, it also
contains some of his most plainspoken lyrics.

"I wasn't very conversational, except to say that
you're sensational," he sang, with disarming
enthusiasm, in "Let Me Tell You About Her," a song
that painted this 48-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of
Famer as a lovestruck schoolboy: "Friends now regard
me with indulgent smiles/But when I start to speak
they run for miles." Whether Costello or the more
virtuosic Nieve was playing piano for "North" songs,
they stuck to a simple, uncluttered style that never
distracted from the lyrics.

In addition to the 10 album tracks, Costello performed
the song "North," which was left off the album, but is currently available for free downloading on his Web site, www.elviscostello.com. Presumably, it didn't make the album because its whimsical flavor would have been out of place, but in concert, it supplied some necessary comic relief. It's a quirky song of praise for the healing powers of Canada. "The polar bears and moose and geese will play/And some of them address you en français/Give me the ice and snow/Time to go north," sang Costello.

Other surprises in the show included the country
standard, "I Still Miss Someone," and "Either Side of
the Same Town," which Costello co-wrote for
"Rediscovered," the recent comeback album by soul
singer Howard Tate. Songs from old Costello albums
included everything from the Dylanesque anthem "Man
Out of Time" to elegant ballads like "Almost Blue" and "Shipbuilding."

"In the Darkest Place," a gorgeous song from "Painted
From Memory" (Costello's 1998 collection of
collaborations with Burt Bacharach), proved perfectly
suited for the unplugged treatment. And show-opener
"Accidents Will Happen," which dates back to
Costello's punk/new wave phase of the late'70s,
supplied an ideal first line for this down-to-earth, conversationally toned evening: "I just don't know where to begin."

Costello's show tonight at Town Hall is sold out.
Tomorrow at 10 p.m., he will perform at John Jay
College in New York. This concert will not be open to
the general public, but will be broadcast live on the
A&E cable television network, with an encore
presentation Sunday at 10 a.m.

Copyright 2003 The Star-Ledger.