“some wicked things have happened in this city”
Elvis continues to get great reviews for his recent U.S. shows.
Extract -
The usually chatty Costello was also uncharacteristically reticent, reserving his marks for a few easy-target jokes at Grand Prairie's expense. All this was forgivable, because Costello's voice was at a full, rich peak. Hearing him Tuesday night was to again be baffled by critics who say that he can't sing. And the Imposters -- nonstop keyboardist Steve Nieve, muscular drummer Pete Thomas, steady bassist/backup vocalist Davey Faragher -- played with gun-at-the-back intensity; especially the typically manic Nieve, who also made wizardly use of such oddball instruments as melodica and theremin.
Every time the show promised to burst open, though, it felt like a tease -- until somewhere in the second hour, when a lengthy, grimy version of When I Was Cruel segued into Watching the Detectives, one of Costello's most popular songs.
Even Costello's most erratic albums contain great songs, and that he could cram so much into two hours and still make you miss stuff is a wonder.
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But the most jaw-dropping moment came about halfway through the show, when Elvis took an uncharacteristic pause to announce an audience member’s 41st birthday, remarking in his English accent that “some wicked things have happened in this city.”
When he opened his next song, “I met a little girl in Knoxville, a town we all know well,” some people screamed. And he sang the bizarre ancient murder ballad about the young man who, for no obvious reason, bludgeons his lover to death and throws her in the river. He sang the whole dozen stanzas of the ballad slowly, and without a lyric sheet.
The old folk song, of shadowy origins, was already old as the hills when it was a bluegrass hit for the Louvin Brothers more than 50 years ago. It has gotten some punk cred in recent years, when Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds started performing it.
When anthropologists determined that the human bones found on a South Knoxville riverbank a few weeks ago belonged to an adolescent girl who lived more than a century ago, we naturally wondered if maybe she was the one “with the dark and roving eyes.”
The Metro Pulse
March 17, 2005 • Vol. 15, No. 11
Revenge of the Knoxville Girl
Elvis Costello once the snotty poet of punk, later collaborator with Burt Bacharach, has always kept us guessing, but his first-ever Knoxville show at the Tennessee Theatre last Thursday was of a different order altogether.
Weaving his classic, “Alison,” seamlessly into that other Elvis’s “Suspicious Minds” was one of the show’s several surprises. His old Attractions keyboardist, Steve Nieve, playing the theremin on several numbers was another.
Belying recent complaints that the Tennessee’s new beer-fueled audiences are obnoxiously drunk and rowdy, Costello kept the sold-out audience rapt, even when he stepped away from the microphone and sang part of “Scarlet Tide” a cappella, without amplification. No one in the sold-out theater hooted or whistled. As near as we could tell, for a minute or two, no one breathed.
But the most jaw-dropping moment came about halfway through the show, when Elvis took an uncharacteristic pause to announce an audience member’s 41st birthday, remarking in his English accent that “some wicked things have happened in this city.”
When he opened his next song, “I met a little girl in Knoxville, a town we all know well,” some people screamed. And he sang the bizarre ancient murder ballad about the young man who, for no obvious reason, bludgeons his lover to death and throws her in the river. He sang the whole dozen stanzas of the ballad slowly, and without a lyric sheet.
The old folk song, of shadowy origins, was already old as the hills when it was a bluegrass hit for the Louvin Brothers more than 50 years ago. It has gotten some punk cred in recent years, when Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds started performing it.
When anthropologists determined that the human bones found on a South Knoxville riverbank a few weeks ago belonged to an adolescent girl who lived more than a century ago, we naturally wondered if maybe she was the one “with the dark and roving eyes.”
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Just can't get enough Elvis
By Robert Philpot
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
March 17 '05
Well, you can't accuse Elvis Costello of just playing the hits. During his Tuesday night concert at Nokia Theatre, Costello did get around to fan faves such as Alison and Pump It Up -- but not until he dug deep into albums from each decade of his 28-year recording career.
You could, however, accuse him of letting the music do too much of the talking -- for a little while, anyway. Granted, it's hard to complain about this when the songs are as good as opener King Horse, with its cascading keyboards, or (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea, with its chunky funk. But too often, Costello and his band, the Imposters, stuck close to the recorded versions, not stretching things out or messing with arrangements.
The usually chatty Costello was also uncharacteristically reticent, reserving his marks for a few easy-target jokes at Grand Prairie's expense. All this was forgivable, because Costello's voice was at a full, rich peak. Hearing him Tuesday night was to again be baffled by critics who say that he can't sing. And the Imposters -- nonstop keyboardist Steve Nieve, muscular drummer Pete Thomas, steady bassist/backup vocalist Davey Faragher -- played with gun-at-the-back intensity; especially the typically manic Nieve, who also made wizardly use of such oddball instruments as melodica and theremin.
Every time the show promised to burst open, though, it felt like a tease -- until somewhere in the second hour, when a lengthy, grimy version of When I Was Cruel segued into Watching the Detectives, one of Costello's most popular songs.
Even Costello's most erratic albums contain great songs, and that he could cram so much into two hours and still make you miss stuff is a wonder.
GRADE: B+