Elvis Costello and the Roots @ Brooklyn Bowl

Elvis Costello and the Roots
@ Brooklyn Bowl
Brooklyn, NY - September 17, 2013

On the eve of the release of their collaborative record, Wise Up Ghost, Elvis Costello and members of the Roots got together to try the songs out live in a perfectly appropriate place: a club. And despite the occasional clinks of bowling balls hitting pins, it remained the perfectly appropriate place. Elvis sure thought it was neat.

Costello and the Roots may have very well been made for each other. By no means a ridiculous or necessarily surprising collaboration, it may best be thought of as a rock n roll wolf and a hip hop wolf circling each other not out of hostility but the exact opposite, the only question being how is it gonna sound?

It sounds just fine. It sounds exactly like - because it exactly is - the amber-preserved voice of a living legend, retaining all the education of doing rock, punk, blues, Jazz, country, (and the discipline of his opera record) smacked right into a funk jam by ace professionals. Finally, Elvis got the funk. A sexed up funk, too. This was a spicy hot show because the record appears to be just that.

There were also a balladeer moment (of course, it's Elvis) courtesy of a country duet with Diane Birch and there was plenty of international infusion coming through with La Marisoul as well as through a couple of tunes you might know called "Watching the Detectives" and "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea".

And as part of the encore, just in case you forgot what's the ultimate source vibe of this whole thing, you got "Pump It Up". Because it's all rock and roll. From ?uestlove's Tribe Called Quest-as-law-firm t-shirt to Costello's latest hat. And oh yeah because of all the music.