No Man Should Be This Cool

Elvis Costello & The Imposters
@ Nokia Theater Times Square
New York, NY - May 16, 2007


The balls on this man. 30 years ago this runt decides to co-opt the name of the King of Rock N Roll (who died the same year) and at the same time co-opt the look of a long deceased Rock N Roll icon, more or less. Then he has the nerve to sing jingle-jangle power pop with a punk attitude and sing his own complicated world play making it nearly impossible to sing along to despite the fact that by all other constructs, those songs should be as sing-able as they come.
Fast forward 30 years later, and the former Declan McManus is still tearing it up, breaking away from his many musical projects to reunite with his longtime working band to dish out a night of straight up Costello-brand Rock N Roll.
A guesstimate says that he relied on his first four stellar albums only about 50% of the time (though Armed Forces was sadly underused almost entirely), filling the rest of the night up with competent later tracks that ranged from the rockin' to balladry. Highlights include:

Welcome to the Working Week
The Beat
Watching The Detectives (a long jam with a "Let Him Dangle" middle)
Riot Act
Alison
No Action
I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea
High Fidelity
Radio, Radio
Hey Bulldog (a smashing cover of the greatest Beatles song of all time)
Pump It Up
What's So Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding? (with a "Bring the Boys Home! Bring Them Home Alive!" improvisation)

The crowd did their best to sing along as much as Elvis would let them but when he came out for the third set ("encore" doesn't really do the night justice) and did an acoustic solo of "Alison", the crowd fell starkly silent and you could hear a pin drop - and you could also hear one drunk yuppie girl nearby who took the silence as an indication that she could sing along and then fight with anyone who told her to be quiet (these yuppie girls are becoming the new frat moshers).
Which brings me to the voice: Did Elvis' chords ever age in these last 30 years? I can't tell the difference between My Aim Is True and his live show tonight. I honestly can't.

It was all over too fast. After the first set, I swore they were only on for 40 minutes but the clock said they had been on for an hour and 15 minutes. And there was still over 45 minutes of show left to go as it turned out.

Side notes:
-I never got a good look at Steve Nieve as he was blocked from my view by a big amp.

-Little Steven was there, the first time I've seen him at a gig since CMJ 2004 (though he apparently was at the Racs' North American debut last year). Damn him. Just when I had grown tired of his show, and had also not really been all Elvis-crazy for a stretch, he goes ahead and plays "High Fidelity", getting me all into Get Happy!! and making me excited for this show all over again and making it nice to see him there and blah blah blah.

-Don't ever eat pizza in Times Square. I've lived here pretty much all my life and I never had pizza in the heart of Times Square before. Four dollars, ninety five cents for a slice with topping. You read that right.

No video from tonight (some pictures here), instead console yourself with this video of Elvis with Lou Reed: