Sunday, October 12, 2003

SATURDAY NIGHT ATTRACTION

The end of an eclectic concert going week saw a trip to the Royal Festival Hall to see Elvis Costello and Steve Nieve. This was billed as part of the "Mind Your Head - Sacred Songs" series. Not sure about the sacred songs bit: "love" was a theme as it is on Costello's brand new CD "North".

As you would expect for "one of the greatest modern British songwriters" (tm), not a seat was to be had (except one in the row behind us) and it was an audience of a certain age - me and Mrs Donut included. "North" is a quiet little triumph ringing out all the emotion - the ups and the downs - of love though tune-wise it is a long way from Elvis's early punchy new wave sound. In his middle aged spread days he has mellowed, though "North" is nowhere near as slushy as the Bacharach collaboration. This is much more classic MOR understated songwriting - this is a compliment, BTW.

With little build up Elvis and Nieve came on to thrumb through "Accidents will Happen" and "45". It was a good introduction and set the scene for what was much more than a greatest hits concert. ("God's Comic" and "Peace, Love and Understanding" stood out.) It was, as mentioned above, a celebration of Elvis as songwriter and of love.

Elvis has never been afraid to take a left turn in his music. The appearance of the Brodsky Quartet for a bunch of tracks later on in the evening ("Pills and Soap" a highlight) was a reminder of that. "North" is part of that risk taking strategy.

Apart from the Brodskies on stage for about 20 minutes, it was just Costello on acoustic guitar and Nieve tinkling the ivories on stage for nearly 2 1/2 hours. Emotion was a key part of this evening. It was an all-in-all good time, but the raw feelings expressed in some of the songs.

Full setlist can be found here.

Update: The Times was underwhelmed.

The Independent thinks Elvis is a bit too smart for his own good.

:: Posted by pete @ 17:56