Elvis Costello crooned in that hoarse, yearning snarl of his
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Bumbershoot started easy as a Sunday morning yesterday, with plenty of street parking, few lines and uncrowded walkways. But by midafternoon, festival-goers crowded Seattle Center and lines formed at the most popular food booths and for many of the performances.
The big turnout was no surprise as Sunday boasted the biggest name of the four-day fest: British rock icon Elvis Costello. He closed out the day on the Mainstage in one of those special concerts that only happen at Bumbershoot. Playing solo at the stadium, Elvis Costello crooned in that hoarse, yearning snarl of his, accompanied only by the furious strumming of his own acoustic guitar. The air was wet and still and thick from the twilight rain, carrying his voice over the hushed standing crowd and up to the stands.
"Good to be here," he said, relaxed and friendly. "Feels just like a local gig."
Wearing a little red fedora and black leather jacket, Costello ran through his tunes with stripped-down zeal, the audience singing along on the payoff lines: "Red Shoes," "Rocking Horse Road" (with a snippet of "Wild Thing" tossed in the middle), "Pads, Paws and Claws," "Every Day I Write the Book," "Brilliant Mistake," invoking his ambivalent world of loves won, lost and only contemplated. Nice night.