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Elvis Costello & The Imposters

Jul 18, 2023 By Matthew Berlyant Photography by Matthew Berlyant Web Exclusive

It would be incredibly fair for fans to expect the unexpected from Elvis Costello by this point, more than forty-five years into his career and with so many twists and turns, it can make even the most dedicated Formula One or NASCAR fan dizzy. As such, this summer tour with his long-time backing band The Imposters, billed as a “summer holiday,” saw him touring once again with his longtime mentor, producer, friend, and collaborator Nick Lowe and *his* backing band Los Straitjackets doing their own mini-set as well. Therefore, fans, even ones who perhaps had been perusing the setlists from earlier in the tour in various fan corners of the internet, might have been surprised that this, unlike last year’s comparatively much more straightforward show at Pier 17 (see my review HERE) , resembled less last year’s rock and roll type revue featuring a greatest hits/new album/some rarities type set and more resembled his 10-night run at the Gramercy back in February (see my review HERE) where he basically took over the theater for a month, inviting special guests, playing sets based on different themes each night, and in one instance, even debuted his Broadway musical, which also happened to be at the show I saw during that run. During that run, he didn’t repeat a single song and played 250 in total, a remarkable achievement.

You just *knew* that this was going to be something different when the show opened with the relatively little played “Pills and Soap” (in a new arrangement) followed by “Possession” from 1980’s Get Happy!! (which I think may be my favourite of all of his albums and that is saying something) .From there, we got a mix of new, unreleased songs, old favorites like “Alison” (this time completely rearranged and with a snippet of the Gamble/Huff classic “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me,” “Almost Blue” (also completely reworked) along with the ubiquitous “Watching the Detectives” and deep cuts from the ‘80s and ‘90s like “The Comedians” from 1984’s Goodbye Cruel World (though with lyrics later rewritten for Roy Orbison for his last album Mystery Girl) and “Toledo” from his excellent 1998 album Painted from Memory with his recently departed collaborator Burt Bacharach. It was nice to hear him pay tribute to Burt by saying that they’d been writing songs together for almost thirty years! Time sure does fly.

Backed by The Imposters featuring “special guest” Charlie Sexton (at what point does he become an official member?) and a guest horn section (only present for the last six dates of this tour!) that make old favorites like the aforementioned “Possession” notably different from their recorded versions (and more like how he played it on his 1983 tour, which also featured a horn section), one word that could be used to describe this evening was “eclectic” and more for hardcore fans than for casual ones or those who wanted to just hear “Pump It Up” or something in that vein.

That said, fans who just wanted his more straightforward rock and roll side did get their wishes towards the last thirty to forty-five minutes of the two-hours-plus set when the blitzkrieg rage of “Chelsea,” “Pump It Up,” and “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding” (for which its writer Lowe came out to duet with Costello) closed the evening. And slightly earlier, an absolutely searing “High Fidelity” followed a similarly rousing version of that same album’s (1980’s incredible Get Happy!!)’s UK #2 hit “I Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down” (a Sam and Dave cover that he started slowly like their version before tearing into the faster one).

This familiarity, however, was coupled by more experimental fare like several songs from 2013’s Wise Up Ghost (a collaboration with The Roots), namely “Come the Meantimes,” which was slinky and funky in a way not found on the record, and “Cinco Minutos Con Vos” (introduced as the sequel to 1983’s “Shipbuilding,” also played on this evening). In the midst of all the fiery rock and roll that categorized much of the rest of the set, we also got the 2006 arrangement (credited to Allen Touissant and only appearing on a live DVD from the same year called Hot as a Pistol, Keen as a Blade) of “Poisoned Rose” (originally recorded by Costello in 1986 for his album King of America and much later on by Lowe for 2011’s The Old Magic) with Costello filling in on piano for he much-missed Touissant (RIP).

As he did last year, Nick Lowe dutifully opened the show backed by Los Straitjackets by playing a set of career-spanning highlights ranging from the opening track “So It Goes” (his 1st UK solo single from 1976) to “I Live on a Battlefield” (from 1994’s The Impossible Bird) to “House for Sale,” a beautiful ballad from 2011’s The Old Magic and most recently, the rockin’ “Tokyo Bay” and “Trombone.” In the middle of Lowe’s set, Los Straitjackets played a short set by themselves before Lowe came back out to play more and join them, including his biggest hit “Cruel to Be Kind” and “When I Write the Book” (on Rockpile’s 1980 LP Seconds of Pleasure). For the latter, he asked the crowd to sing along and the crowd, of course, dutifully and respectfully obliged, setting the stage for the 2 plus hours of Elvis to come.