Tag: Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello In Concert: Up to His Old Tricks

On By kruekuttIn punk rock, Rock and Roll, singer-songwriterLeave a comment

Elvis Costello and The Imposters with Charlie Sexton, Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts, Muskegon, Michigan, September 18, 2026.

We’re doing the songs I wrote in the first 10 years in show business. We’re not going to play anything other than that, no matter how much you beg and plead.

Of course, Elvis Costello subverted that passive-aggressive promise almost immediately, following up a starting run of late-1970s bangers with his pandemic-vintage sourball “No Flag”. His sarcastic ringmaster persona (complete with labored pun about being “an Okie from Muskegon” for the night) didn’t always land with a bemused Frauenthal Center audience of Boomers. But regardless of whether his put-ons put us off or not, the last night of Costello’s “Radio Soul” tour pulled us in, as he and his Imposters freewheeled through familiar classics and obscure rarities, performed with cocksure confidence.

I knew the night would be wild when the blue-eyed reggae of Costello’s “Watching the Detectives” veered into Sonny Boy Williamson II’s “Help Me Blues” and Otis Rush’s “Three Times a Fool” before steering back to the final verse. The man’s taste in classic R&B, country and soul is impeccable, and his sense of what slots in with his repertoire is uncanny, whether bookending a semi-acoustic interlude with a weeper by Charlie Rich and a George Jones/Elvis Presley/Willie Nelson medley, starting Sam and Dave’s “I Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down” at their original tempo before seguing to his double-time cover version from Get Happy, or embellishing the playout of “Alison” with a bit of the late Motown smash “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me”. Even with the show’s structure clearly defined – a first half of rockers, the “unplugged” midsection with Elvis in his pomp at the grand piano, then a final surge of hits – where Costello would go next couldn’t be confidently predicted, and that was a big part of the fun.

Though, shades of Bob Dylan, there were moments where it took until the chorus of a song (especially “Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head” and “I’ll Wear It Proudly”) to figure out what it was! Sometimes the misdirection came from different arrangements; the hit Smokey Robinson tribute “Everyday I Write the Book” was one example, played at a half-speed crawl. Sometimes the limitations of Elvis’ voice fifty years on – falling behind the beat, straining for the pitch when he hit the top of his midrange – were the culprit. But give Costello credit; he made both that willfulness and those limitations serve the song as often as not, and when he punched through to his high range, his vocal sound was full, sturdy and genuinely thrilling.

Of course, it helps that The Imposters (including two of Costello’s original Attractions) remain one of the best backing bands in the business, whether following Elvis’ lead or carrying him through the rough spots. Steve Nieve flitted around his horseshoe of pianos and organs — even wailing on melodica up front – with his unique blend of classical grandeur and cheesy punk energy; Pete Thomas could be subtle on the drums when needed, but clearly relished his main role as human pile-driver. Davey Faragher, reliable as ever on basses and backing vocals, kept the music’s heartbeat going, no matter what perversities of tempo and style Costello called up. And guitar wingman Charlie Sexton’s experience backing Dylan obviously came in handy for this tour; his tasty, genial lead guitar work supplemented Elvis’ rough-edged efforts, and made for both genuinely bluesy highlights (“Lovable”, “Honey Are You Straight or Are You Blind”) and energetic uptempo thrash on the closing sprint of “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea”, “Pump It Up” and “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding”, complete with big-time light show!

The four times I’ve seen Elvis Costello over the last five decades, his onstage mood has ranged from hearty and expansive (in 1982, then in 2008 opening for The Police – picture him duetting with Sting on “Alison”) to chippy and grudging (in 1984). For all his inherent prickliness as an artist and performer, it was fun to catch EC in the former mood at his Muskegon show. And for all his teasing a nostalgic audience about his eagerness to catch William Shatner’s heavy metal set at the upcoming weekend’s rock festival in Chicago, Costello gave everything he had Friday night, winding up a unmistakably personal yet remarkably crowd-pleasing tour.

— Rick Krueger

Setlist:

  • You Belong to Me
  • Mystery Dance
  • Watching the Detectives (including Help Me Blues/Three Times a Fool – Sonny Boy Williamson II/Otis Rush cover medley)
  • Less Than Zero
  • No Flag
  • Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head
  • This Year’s Girl
  • Party Girl
  • Lovers Walk
  • Who Will the Next Fool Be (Charlie Rich cover)
  • A Face in the Crowd
  • Everyday I Write the Book
  • I’ll Wear It Proudly
  • Lovable
  • Honey, Are You Straight or Are You Blind?
  • A Good Year for the Roses / Suspicious Minds /Always on My Mind (George Jones/Elvis Presley/Willie Nelson cover medley)
  • I Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down (Sam & Dave cover)
  • Radio Radio
  • (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
  • Alison (including I’m Gonna Make You Love Me – Supremes/Temptations cover)
  • (I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea
  • Pump It Up
  • (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding

Rick’s Quick Takes: 4th-Quarter ’24 Lightning Round!

On By kruekuttIn americana, folk rock, Insideout Music, jazz rock, krautrock, Kscope, Neal Morse, Progressive rock, punk rock, Rock and Roll, singer-songwriter, vernacular musicLeave a comment

Where have the last two months gone? And how many new releases have I enjoyed in the interim? Enough that I’ll be shooting to summarize each one included below in two to four sentences, max! (Though I can’t guarantee they’ll be short sentences.) Purchase/streaming links embedded as usual, so here we gooo . . .

New Music

As teased in our October interview with mainman Jem Godfrey, Frost*’s Life in the Wires (listen here) is the conceptual album of a prog fan’s fondest dreams; the storyline is vintage dystopia (1984 meets Who’s Next), the music a full-on sonic assault from the get-go (replete with widdly synthesizer solos). Pitted against the required cybernetic supervillain, in search of freedom out there in the fields, can Godfrey’s protagonist Naio escape permanent lockdown in teenage wasteland? The ultimate answer is well worth the winding journey; powered by the heady backing of John Mitchell, Nathan King and Craig Blundell, Godfrey easily conjures up the equal of previous band high points Milliontown and Falling Satellites.

On his fresh solo album Bringing It Down to the Bass, Tony Levin launches 14 low-end odysseys with (to quote the hype sticker) “too many virtuoso collaborators to list.” But whether proving that “Boston Rocks” with Bowie guitarist Earl Slick and Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, “Floating in Dark Waves” below Robert Fripp’s soundscapes, or reuniting with fellow Peter Gabriel bandmembers on multiple jams, Levin always grabs the ear with his supremely melodic bass, Stick and cello work. And his low-key, half-spoken vocals prove surprisingly effective, especially on dry barbershop throwbacks “Side B/Turn It Over” and “On the Drums” and the moving John Lennon tribute “Fire Cross the Sky.”

Pioneer garage rock guitarist Wayne Kramer had one more winner in him before his passing earlier this year. Credited in tribute to Kramer’s seminal Detroit collective MC5, Heavy Lifting (listen here) rages against the political and cultural machines still standing since the band’s original heyday, agitating for a better deal with 13 brash, irresistible helpings of punk (“Barbarians at the Gate”), rock (“Edge of the Switchblade”) and soul (Edwin Starr cover “Twenty-Five Miles”). For the full skinny on why Kramer & company finally snuck into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame through the back door this year, the new MC5: A Oral Biography of Rock’s Most Revolutionary Band is essential reading.

As his long-time collaborators spin off in other directions, Neal Morse just keeps on keeping on! Teaming with The Resonance, a purpose-built quartet of young Nashville hotshots, Morse’s latest No Hill for a Climber (listen here) is a bit of a throwback; instead of full-blown rock opera, Morse builds a multi-faceted album, sandwiching creepy swinger “Thief”, head-down rocker “All the Rage” and melting ballad “Ever Interceding” between twin epics (opener “Eternity in Your Eyes” and the closing title suite). The more straight-on vibe Morse embraced on his Joseph duology predominates here, but with enough detours to keep long-time listeners coming back and intrigue new hearers.

Straight-on is a pretty good description of the new The Pineapple Thief EP Last to Run (listen here) as well; far more than leftovers from the fine It Leads to This, the five songs included here strike hard and deep. As Gavin Harrison weaves enticing rhythmic illusions on drums, Bruce Soord spins up dark, pensive vignettes of personalities in crisis (“All Because of Me”), relationships snarled by dysfunction (“No Friend of Mine”) and societies on the brink (“Election Day”). Another band that mines a familiar vein repeatedly, yet consistently leaves listeners craving more.

Speaking of dysfunction, The Smile’s Cutouts (listen here) resembles nothing so much as a numbed comedown, trailing the apocalypses unflinchingly depicted earlier this year on their Wall of Eyes. Thom Yorke’s nonsense lyrics and bleached-out vocal affect sound light-years away from the redemption Radiohead intimated even at their most jaundiced; Jonny Greenwood spins up orchestral/electronics, evoking distant, forgotten nightmares; Tom Skinner holds down the spare, spacey beat, blithely driving into nothingness. If not as gripping as this trio’s first two albums, Cutouts can still compel with its chill.

But where The Smile chills, Tears for Fears seeks warmth; the four fresh tracks on TfF’s mostly-live Songs for a Nervous Planet (listen here) home in on healing (“Say Goodbye to Mom and Dad”), lasting love (the lush “The Girl that I Call Home” and the psychedelic “Emily Says”) and self-actualization (the quirkily glib “Astronaut”). And there’s plenty more catharsis in concert, as Roland Orzbaal, Curt Smith and backing band blast out the hits of yesteryear and revisit the highlights of their fine 2022 comeback The Tipping Point, all with plenty of enthusiasm and aplomb.

(Live albums and archival releases – box set time! – follow the jump.)

Continue reading “Rick’s Quick Takes: 4th-Quarter ’24 Lightning Round!” →

Rick’s Quick Takes from March

On By kruekuttIn art rock, avant-garde, folk rock, Haken, hard rock, Insideout Music, pop, post punk, progressive metal, Progressive rock, Rock and Roll1 Comment

“Delays, delays!”

Marvin the Martian, “Hare-Way to the Stars”

(A quick note: for new releases, order links are embedded in album titles; online playlists/previews/etc. follow reviews when available. For catalog albums, playlists are linked with titles.)

Once again, I get to second a positive review from Bryan — this time of Fauna, the new release from prog-metallers Haken. Wildly creative, I found this to be the British sextet’s most appealing effort since 2016’s Affinity, stirring in flavors of fusion, postmodern pop, funk, reggae, electronica and even opera alongside one heavy yet tuneful chorus after another. Whether on the short, sharp shocks of “Taurus” and “Lovebite” or the extended journeys of “Sempiternal Beings” and “Elephants Never Forget”, Ross Jennings’ vocals soar, Charlie Griffiths and Richard Henshall’s guitars crunch, Peter Jones’ keys fill what few sonic crevices remain, and rhythm section Conner Green and Raymond Hearne thunder. Play it loud — but look out for multiple, exciting curveballs on every track!

Last month also saw the release of two live albums from veteran bands who’ve made it through the pandemic back to the stage:

Van der Graaf Generator’s The Bath Forum Concert (a CD/DVD/BluRay set) documents the venerable trio’s 2022 return to action; tackling an ambitious setlist that spans their entire career, guitarist/pianist/singer Peter Hammill is as declamatory and vehement as ever, organist Hugh Banton covers the aural spectrum between cathedral and crypt, and drummer Guy Evans locks into or disrupts the grinding soundscapes as the spirit moves him. The beautifully filmed video shows VDGG working hard and watching each other, opting for the flow as they feel it rather than relying on clinical precision; warts and all, this is refreshingly in the moment, a strong show that captures the band’s existential angst and humanistic idealism in full.

Two years after their 2020 Far Eastern tour collapsed around them, King Crimson satellite band Stick Men returned to Japan and blew away any cobwebs that might have accumulated at Osaka’s BB Live venue. The resulting album Umeda showcases avant guitarist Markus Reuter, multi-bassist Tony Levin and percussionist Pat Mastelotto at their aggressive, angular best; whether on long-standing improvisational frameworks “Cusp”, “Schattenhaft” and “Swimming in Tea”, newer compositions “Ringtone”, “Tentacles” and “Danger in the Workplace” or Crimson classics “Red”, “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic Pt. II” or “The Sheltering Sky”, these guys are frighteningly good, whether working up a hair-raising din or backing off for spacey, unexpectedly lush interludes. A great introduction for newbies and a must for fans.

Plus, in February and March the recorded music industry resumed cranking out deluxe box set reissues and compilations — apparently the market of Boomers (like me) with more money than sense isn’t tapped out yet:

Continue reading “Rick’s Quick Takes from March” →

Rick’s Quick Takes for January

On By kruekuttIn avant-garde, folk rock, Heavy metal, krautrock, post punk, Progressive rock, punk rock2 Comments

Big Big Train, Welcome to the Planet: Yet another stellar addition to BBT’s discography, their latest effort consolidates the widened horizons of Grand Tour and the intimate subjects of Common Ground, casting an epic light on the everyday glory of family, community, love and loss. With Nick D’Virgilio, Rikard Sjöblom, new guitarist Dave Foster and new keyboardist Carly Bryant all involved in the writing, rockers like “Made of Sunshine” and “The Connection Plan” hit with maximum impact; ballads like “Capitoline Venus” and “Oak and Stone” are masterfully expressive; instrumentals like “A Room with No Ceiling” and “Bats in the Belfry” unleash the requisite nifty twists and turns — not forgetting less easily classified delights like the multi-sectioned “Lanterna” and the woozy dreamland wash of the title track. Throughout, Greg Spawton’s firm hand on the tiller and the late David Longdon’s vocal authority are rock solid, their partnership the beating heart of this music. In the wake of Longdon’s untimely passing, we can’t know if Welcome to the Planet is the last stop on Big Big Train’s journey or a way station before what might come next. But such considerations pale in the face of what we’ve been given; this one — easily my favorite BBT effort since the English Electric days — is a real thing of beauty, an album to be treasured and listened to again and again. (Check out Bryan Morey’s detailed review here.)

Continue reading “Rick’s Quick Takes for January” →

kruekutt’s 2018 Favorites: New Albums

On By kruekuttIn jazz, Progressive rock2 Comments

Here are the albums of new music from 2018 that grabbed me on first or second listen, then compelled repeated plays. I’m not gonna rank them except for those that achieved Top Favorite status, which I’ll save for the very end. The others are listed alphabetically by artist. (Old school style, that is — last names first where necessary!) Links to the ones I’ve previously reviewed are embedded in the album titles.  But first, a graphic tease …

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Lightning Round Reviews: November 1-9, 2018

On By kruekuttIn Haken, hard rock, pop, post punk, progressive metal, Progressive rock1 Comment

In case you hadn’t noticed, the last quarter of 2018 has put paid to any perceived drought of new releases & reissues.  Capsule reviews of what I’ve been listening to since the first of this month follow the jump; albums are reviewed in descending order on my Personal Proggyness Perception (PPP) scale, scored from 0 to 10.

Continue reading “Lightning Round Reviews: November 1-9, 2018” →

The Albums That Changed My Life: #3, This Year’s Model by Elvis Costello

On By kruekuttIn Progressive rock2 Comments

by Rick Krueger

“The songs are lyrics, not speeches, and they’re tunes, not paintings. Writing about music is like dancing about architecture—it’s a really stupid thing to want to do.” — Elvis Costello, 1983, apparently quoting Martin Mull.

Ouch.

On the other hand, would I have ever even heard of Elvis Costello if it hadn’t been for the rock press?  Let alone listened to This Year’s Model?

Continue reading “The Albums That Changed My Life: #3, This Year’s Model by Elvis Costello” →