Elvis Costello - 21/6/10

I have been to see Elvis Costello a few times starting on the end of a pier at Hastings about thirty years ago. He always delivers.

This was a solo gig which is different to his gigs next week which are with a band. This was a fairly intimate gig despite being in the Symphony Hall because he made it so. He mainly played on a couple of beat up acoustic guitars and the songs came thick and fast. It was a fairly broad sweep through his catalogue with only a couple of songs that I recognised from his latest album.

One of those came early on after a couple of songs from the 90s ('45' and 'Either Side of the Same Town') and it was the opener on the album 'Down Amongst the Wines and Spirits'. This is a classic sad country song and it worked beautifully as a solo acoustic number.

The guitar playing was precise and professional and the singing soulful and emotional all through the gig.

Highlights for me included 'Shipbuilding' which is very powerful and the acoustic rendition accentuated the pathos. Others that resonated were 'Every Day I Write the Book' which was much better live than on the record, 'A Good Year for the Roses' which was a song I didn't know but had that country sadness done to a 'T', and 'Alison' one of his early classics. He also did a song in truly acoustic fashion, front of stage, unplugged, no mike and he claimed this was rock and roll 1921-style. It was called 'Slow Drag from Josephine' and was pretty mesmerising. I also really enjoyed the guitar on that old favourite 'Watching the Detectives' where he confounded the expectations by playing a looped disonant guitar solo.

He played for an hour and a quarter and went off and came back for an encore. I think it was the longest encore I have ever seen as he played for a further fifty minutes and he kept saying 'just one more' but the enthusiasm of the audience seemed to stop him actually leaving the stage. He started by responding after just a beat to a request from the audience 'Three Sons' and then played loads of good stuff - 'Man Out of Time' and 'King of Confidence' were particularly good and 'Sulfur to Sugarcane' was outstanding.

I think we were privileged to hear Elvis on such good form and solo. Excellent gig.