Elvis Costello 21/6/2015

The great thing about seeing Elvis Costello is that it is always different and it is always excellent. He never just rehashes the last tour he did and he has such a fund of songs that you know the evening is going to be full of good music. The start of this show was particularly special for the superb support act 'Larkin Poe'. Now this is my sort of band. Straight from the deep south playing mean guitar and slide guitar - Tony Joe White meets The Allman brothers in my book and the big surprise is that they are female. Megan Lovell plays slide whilst Rebecca Lovell plays a mean electric guitar and sings. There was a drummer too but I didn't pay him too much mind. I could have stood a couple of hours of Larkin Poe but I was delighted that they came back and played quite a few songs with Elvis after their initial set. Elvis was playing solo and he played half a dozen songs with an acoustic guitar ranging over his output from the 70s to 'National Ransom' and the song from that 2010 album was particularly memorable - 'Church Underground'. He then moved to the piano and did perhaps my favourite Costello song 'Shipbuilding'followed by 'I can't stand up for falling down'. Shipbuilding is a tour de force and when delivered from a piano I could have reached out and touched, very powerful. Next on the gig list was a set of songs sat on a chair and another change of mood as he did a couple of covers of old songs and I found myself enjoying the cover of 'She' surprisingly. After a couple more solo numbers Larkin Poe joined Elvis and this was a great part of the set as the twin guitars added some grit and blues to the sound. 'That's not the part of you she's leaving' stood out for me from this mini-set of songs and then all too soon after half a dozen tracks they left but Elvis was back - this time playing within the huge Television Set that had served as back drop and projection screen. Now it was time for the old favourites and we had great versions of 'Oliver's Army', 'Alison' and 'Pump it up'. Then Larkin Poe were added to the Television set stage for a superb 'Good year for the Roses'. The last encore included one of my favourites 'Jimmie standing in the rain' - oh actually make that two as he also did 'Peace Love and Understanding' to finish and Larkin Poe were back for that final final song as well. All I can say is that Elvis did it again and I am off to see Larkin Poe in July when they headline in the area.