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There's nothing on the Wolf Trap website ( http://www.wolftrap.org/Filene_Center.aspx ), but a google search (http://tinyurl.com/95xk53 ) for "Elvis Costello" "the Sugarcanes" "Wolf Trap" turns up five ticket reseller listings for June 11.
EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
Last edited by johnfoyle on Tue Jun 09, 2009 5:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11, maybe
It's official!!!!!!!!!!! Summer schedule was announced this morning! 
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Lester Burnham
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Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11, maybe
My friend has gotten two tickets for me and her, so I'll be making the drive from Philly to Virginia for this. She said it's an early birthday present, but I really think it's a token of her appreciation for introducing her to EC for her birthday back in January!
Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11, maybe
Who's going?
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queenofthefleapit
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Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
I'll be there!
Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
I will be there.....wouldn't dream of not making the 5 hour drive to the WolfTrap
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bronxapostle
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Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
God bless him...three nights in a row to open the tour. i'm shot from TWO!!! but, i guess that IS his workday, while we msut awaken and GO to our work in between. a great, fun show if you are thinking to skip this tour...DON'T!!!!!
Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
I wrote on listserv..
Another good show tonight, though Elvis is starting to have vocal wear, which he acknowledged...he cut a few songs out of the set...it was hot on stage and I haver never seen Elvis sweat so much....he was melting up there...he pushed through 45 min of encores despite the voice problems and I swear I was slightly concerned for him as he tipped his hat to us at the very end, he actually seemed to wobble a little as he stood there, and he puffed his cheeks and blew out the air like he was just too pooped to pop...that said, he was in great spirits all night, laughing out loud at times and grinning...
We got two new songs, Five Small Words and A Condemned Man....he also did They'll Never Take Her Love From Me....at the end of Alison, after He'll Have to Go he added Charlie Rich's "I'll Make it All Up to You", which he used to do solo in 1984, it was wonderful...
Another good show tonight, though Elvis is starting to have vocal wear, which he acknowledged...he cut a few songs out of the set...it was hot on stage and I haver never seen Elvis sweat so much....he was melting up there...he pushed through 45 min of encores despite the voice problems and I swear I was slightly concerned for him as he tipped his hat to us at the very end, he actually seemed to wobble a little as he stood there, and he puffed his cheeks and blew out the air like he was just too pooped to pop...that said, he was in great spirits all night, laughing out loud at times and grinning...
We got two new songs, Five Small Words and A Condemned Man....he also did They'll Never Take Her Love From Me....at the end of Alison, after He'll Have to Go he added Charlie Rich's "I'll Make it All Up to You", which he used to do solo in 1984, it was wonderful...
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bronxapostle
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Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
man DAVE....that's tough to hear! and i bet he never undid his tie or took off the blazer. hope you enjoyed. sounds good.
Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
Yes he mentioned something about breathing the bad NYC air. I think the show was tough for casual fans that frequent these open air shows. Also the sound wasn't always dynamic. Hard to match his last show at WT with the great AT. That was about as good as it gets.
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bronxapostle
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Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
yes, having seen the first two shows in relatively intimate indoor surroundings, and with a good seat each night, i was VERY fearful that it would NOT translate well into ANY outdoor amphitheatre that i've been too. gotta disagree about the AT shows being as good as it gets. they ALL have their own individual merit and should be embraced for the variety he so often delivers to us. UNMATCHED, he will remain in THAT category.
Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
bronxapostle wrote:man DAVE....that's tough to hear! and i bet he never undid his tie or took off the blazer. hope you enjoyed. sounds good.
Actually he was smart and didn't wear the tie, for once!
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Who Shot Sam?
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Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
I'm not sure it's a great idea for Elvis to be scheduling back to back to back dates at this stage of his career, especially given the length of his shows and the travel involved. His voice was already a little ragged in places at the Beacon on Wednesday.
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
To each his own. I am more of a R&B guy. I thought that show presented better in a WT type of environment and EC was really on form. I would have liked to see that lineup develop further.bronxapostle wrote:yes, having seen the first two shows in relatively intimate indoor surroundings, and with a good seat each night, i was VERY fearful that it would NOT translate well into ANY outdoor amphitheatre that i've been too. gotta disagree about the AT shows being as good as it gets. they ALL have their own individual merit and should be embraced for the variety he so often delivers to us. UNMATCHED, he will remain in THAT category.
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And No Coffee Table
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Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
Anyone write down the setlist?
If not, anyone want to assemble an approximate setlist?
If not, anyone want to assemble an approximate setlist?
Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postro ... night.html
The Washington Post
June 12, 2009
CHRIS KLIMEK
No matter how many Will Ferrell flicks or Stephen Colbert Christmas specials Elvis Costello turns up in, the circa 1978 image of him as the logorheic and self-immolating Angry Young Man endures.
But in the latter two-thirds of his wildly eclectic career, he's evolved into something more like the Martin Scorcese of music, as much a historian and curator as he is an original artist. Some would extend the Scorcese comparison to say that critics overpraise Elvis's latter-day stuff out of affection for the more direct (and popular) work he did in the '70s and '80s. (And those people are wrong.) But nobody could deny his generosity as a live performer.
Last night, as in several summers past, Costello indulged that curatorial impulse in an ingratiating and wide-ranging set at Wolf Trap. And as in the past, he brought along some very estimable backup. The retinue of roots-music ringers onstage included harmony singer/guitarist Jim Lauderdale, fiddler Stuart Duncan and dobro player Jerry Douglas. It's the same crew that plays on "Secret, Profane & Sugarcane," a disarmingly ramshackle slice of Americana that finds Elvis at his headiest and goosiest all at once.
Given that there were more chops onstage than in Jackie Chan's entire filmography, the show was surprisingly light on solos. Though the players had the dexterity and chemistry you'd expect, as a band they sometimes seemed too timid, as though determined not to upstage the songs.
They needn't have worried. These songs -- 31 of them -- hold their own. The 155-minute set included most of the new disc, naturally. But as usual with this Elvis, it was the game of which cover versions he'd attempt -- not to mention which oldies and oddities he'd resurrect from his own crazy-thick songbook -- that gave the evening a delightful air of surprise.
Case in point: The set included tunes by Hoagy Carmichael and Harold Adamson ("My Resistance Is Low"), Merle Haggard ("Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down") and Lou Reed ("Femme Fatale," in an arrangement decidedly more celebratory than the aching original). And that was just in the first half-dozen songs. Later, there would a be a dusty "Friend of the Devil." And the two songs Elvis wrote for Johnny Cash. And one he wrote with Loretta Lynn: "She came out with a big box labeled 'Songs,' so I knew she meant business," Costello reminisced with his usual dry pith.
Elvis, of course, is a songwriting heavyweight himself, and the vintage material he chose to adapt to the old-timey idiom came largely from his 1977 debut, "My Aim Is True," and from a prior full-on foray into roots, 1986's "King of America." Rarities? Check: "American Without Tears No. 2," which duplicates the original's melody but offers a sequel in the lyrics. Maybe only four people in the house could identify it, but Elvis had persuaded most of the lawn to sing along by the end. After that, getting them to sing "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" was a cinch.
The evening wasn't perfect. It took half the show to get the sound mix right, and with all-acoustic instrumentation, you couldn't not notice. Perhaps because it was his third marathon concert in as many nights, Elvis suffered some weakness in the pipes. Like a true pro, he apologized only once, pleading "New York air." And he rebounded nicely for the hour's worth of encores we've come to expect from him.
The Washington Post
June 12, 2009
CHRIS KLIMEK
No matter how many Will Ferrell flicks or Stephen Colbert Christmas specials Elvis Costello turns up in, the circa 1978 image of him as the logorheic and self-immolating Angry Young Man endures.
But in the latter two-thirds of his wildly eclectic career, he's evolved into something more like the Martin Scorcese of music, as much a historian and curator as he is an original artist. Some would extend the Scorcese comparison to say that critics overpraise Elvis's latter-day stuff out of affection for the more direct (and popular) work he did in the '70s and '80s. (And those people are wrong.) But nobody could deny his generosity as a live performer.
Last night, as in several summers past, Costello indulged that curatorial impulse in an ingratiating and wide-ranging set at Wolf Trap. And as in the past, he brought along some very estimable backup. The retinue of roots-music ringers onstage included harmony singer/guitarist Jim Lauderdale, fiddler Stuart Duncan and dobro player Jerry Douglas. It's the same crew that plays on "Secret, Profane & Sugarcane," a disarmingly ramshackle slice of Americana that finds Elvis at his headiest and goosiest all at once.
Given that there were more chops onstage than in Jackie Chan's entire filmography, the show was surprisingly light on solos. Though the players had the dexterity and chemistry you'd expect, as a band they sometimes seemed too timid, as though determined not to upstage the songs.
They needn't have worried. These songs -- 31 of them -- hold their own. The 155-minute set included most of the new disc, naturally. But as usual with this Elvis, it was the game of which cover versions he'd attempt -- not to mention which oldies and oddities he'd resurrect from his own crazy-thick songbook -- that gave the evening a delightful air of surprise.
Case in point: The set included tunes by Hoagy Carmichael and Harold Adamson ("My Resistance Is Low"), Merle Haggard ("Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down") and Lou Reed ("Femme Fatale," in an arrangement decidedly more celebratory than the aching original). And that was just in the first half-dozen songs. Later, there would a be a dusty "Friend of the Devil." And the two songs Elvis wrote for Johnny Cash. And one he wrote with Loretta Lynn: "She came out with a big box labeled 'Songs,' so I knew she meant business," Costello reminisced with his usual dry pith.
Elvis, of course, is a songwriting heavyweight himself, and the vintage material he chose to adapt to the old-timey idiom came largely from his 1977 debut, "My Aim Is True," and from a prior full-on foray into roots, 1986's "King of America." Rarities? Check: "American Without Tears No. 2," which duplicates the original's melody but offers a sequel in the lyrics. Maybe only four people in the house could identify it, but Elvis had persuaded most of the lawn to sing along by the end. After that, getting them to sing "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" was a cinch.
The evening wasn't perfect. It took half the show to get the sound mix right, and with all-acoustic instrumentation, you couldn't not notice. Perhaps because it was his third marathon concert in as many nights, Elvis suffered some weakness in the pipes. Like a true pro, he apologized only once, pleading "New York air." And he rebounded nicely for the hour's worth of encores we've come to expect from him.
Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
Pretty good review, but he didn't do American Without Tears # 2 !! He did the original only.
Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
I also forgot to mention, at the end of Brilliant Mistake, he did a couple lines from a verse from Tangled Up in Blue, something he's done occasionally over the years but I've never actually witnessed it. That was great. (it's the "she was married when we first met" bit)
Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
This has been added to the WP account -
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postro ... night.html
(Photo by Andi King)
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postro ... night.html
(Photo by Andi King)
Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
http://metromusicscene.blogspot.com/200 ... eview.html
June 12, 2009
Alice Stephens
This is the second concert in a row where the crowd has been overwhelmingly middle-aged and older -- silver was the predominant hair color (if there was hair at all); people picked their way carefully down the Wolf Trap steps; there were some canes. Well, whatever, time marches on, but some things are still the same.
Elvis Costello is still incredibly prolific, and is touring to promote his new album, Secrets, Profane & Sugarcane, which he touted good-humoredly during his performance. He played at least 7 songs from this new album, and they were all vintage Costello, with soaring vocals and exquisite lyrics.
Whereas he used to pack a whole novel into a 3 minute pop song, he is now dissecting moments and memories, losing some of the snarky cockiness of songs like “Blame it on Cain” and “Brilliant Mistake” (both of which he performed) and replacing it with wistful vignettes of people who have not gotten what they wanted. OK, so maybe he always wrote about the same things, only his protagonists, like the songwriter himself, now feel the weight of time upon their shoulders and feel regret instead of anger at the inability to change vanished moments.
Though he apologized for his croaky voice, he could still croon in that signature tone (once described as adenoidal—I tend to disagree, but as the man himself once said, “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture”), as exhibited by his performance of “Alison.” He engaged the audience in a little playful scatting during the last verse of that song, changing the poignancy of the lines to a celebration of everybody’s favorite Elvis Costello tune.
There were no drums in his back-up band of crack musicians (including a fiddler and an accordionist), and only one very occasional back-up singer (country/bluegrass musician Jim Lauderdale), so that he provided both main and back-up vocals on songs like “Femme Fatale” and “Red Shoes.” His banter was funny, his band was loose, and even though the old folks on the lawn never got up to dance, we all left happily humming the tune of his closing song, “Peace Love and Understanding.”
Two unhappy bloggers -
http://www.tedstake.com/2009/06/12/elvi ... -building/
http://crawdaddye.blogspot.com/2009/06/trapped.html
(extract)
let’s turn our attention to why Elvis Costello sucked dingle-berry covered donkey balls.
The second is rather funny, if not for family viewing!
June 12, 2009
Alice Stephens
This is the second concert in a row where the crowd has been overwhelmingly middle-aged and older -- silver was the predominant hair color (if there was hair at all); people picked their way carefully down the Wolf Trap steps; there were some canes. Well, whatever, time marches on, but some things are still the same.
Elvis Costello is still incredibly prolific, and is touring to promote his new album, Secrets, Profane & Sugarcane, which he touted good-humoredly during his performance. He played at least 7 songs from this new album, and they were all vintage Costello, with soaring vocals and exquisite lyrics.
Whereas he used to pack a whole novel into a 3 minute pop song, he is now dissecting moments and memories, losing some of the snarky cockiness of songs like “Blame it on Cain” and “Brilliant Mistake” (both of which he performed) and replacing it with wistful vignettes of people who have not gotten what they wanted. OK, so maybe he always wrote about the same things, only his protagonists, like the songwriter himself, now feel the weight of time upon their shoulders and feel regret instead of anger at the inability to change vanished moments.
Though he apologized for his croaky voice, he could still croon in that signature tone (once described as adenoidal—I tend to disagree, but as the man himself once said, “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture”), as exhibited by his performance of “Alison.” He engaged the audience in a little playful scatting during the last verse of that song, changing the poignancy of the lines to a celebration of everybody’s favorite Elvis Costello tune.
There were no drums in his back-up band of crack musicians (including a fiddler and an accordionist), and only one very occasional back-up singer (country/bluegrass musician Jim Lauderdale), so that he provided both main and back-up vocals on songs like “Femme Fatale” and “Red Shoes.” His banter was funny, his band was loose, and even though the old folks on the lawn never got up to dance, we all left happily humming the tune of his closing song, “Peace Love and Understanding.”
Two unhappy bloggers -
http://www.tedstake.com/2009/06/12/elvi ... -building/
http://crawdaddye.blogspot.com/2009/06/trapped.html
(extract)
let’s turn our attention to why Elvis Costello sucked dingle-berry covered donkey balls.
The second is rather funny, if not for family viewing!
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Who Shot Sam?
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Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
Ted Leonsis is not just any old blogger. He's an AOL billionaire and owner of the National Hockey League's Washington Capitals.johnfoyle wrote:http://www.tedstake.com/2009/06/12/elvi ... e-building
Sounds like the Wolf Trap concert was a step down from the Beacon show, but people really should make an effort to understand what kind of concert they are going to get before they decide to come. It was never going to be a greatest hits revue.
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
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And No Coffee Table
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Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
A slightly longer version of this review appears on the writer's website:johnfoyle wrote:http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postro ... night.html
The Washington Post
June 12, 2009
CHRIS KLIMEK
No matter how many Will Ferrell flicks or Stephen Colbert Christmas specials Elvis Costello turns up in, the circa 1978 image of him as the logorheic and self-immolating Angry Young Man endures...
http://chrisklimek.com/2009/06/12/live- ... ugarcanes/
It also includes the full setlist (with the wrong version of American Without Tears, as noted above):
01 My Resistance Is Low (Hoagy Carmichael & Harold Adamson)
02 All-Time Doll
03 Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down (Merle Haggard)
04 Down Among the Wine and Spirits
05 Our Little Angel
06 Femme Fatale (Lou Reed)
07 I Felt the Chill
08 Hidden Shame
09 The Delivery Man
10 The Butcher’s Boy (traditional)
11 Blame It on Cain
12 Indoor Fireworks
13 Condemned Man (as-yet-unrecorded; title tentative)
14 Friend of the Devil (Grateful Dead)
15 She Handed Me a Mirror
16 Every Day I Write the Book
17 Five Small Words (as-yet-unrecorded; title tentative)
18 She Was No Good
19 Little Palaces
20 Complicated Shadows
21 Brilliant Mistake
ENCORE 1
22 Red Cotton
23 The Crooked Line
24 American Without Tears No. 2 (Twilight version)
25 (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
ENCORE 2
26 Sulphur to Sugarcane
27 The Race Is On (Don Rollins)
28 Alison / He’ll Have to Go
ENCORE 3
29 They’ll Never Take Her Love from Me
30 (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding? (Nick Lowe)
31 The Scarlet Tide
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Lester Burnham
- Posts: 247
- Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2006 4:55 pm
Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
When was the last time he did a greatest hits revue?
My friend and I went to the concert last night, and had a blast. She had gotten into EC through me, and I know she abhors country music, so I was skeptical when she got us tickets. I told her that the show would most likely be bluegrass, and heavily rearranged versions of classics, so I think she was a little worried too. But she got SP&SC, and loved it, and really enjoyed the concert last night too.
So pbbblhhh to those anonymous bloggers who don't get it! The second guy (whoever wrote the "Trapped" article) sounded like a stuck-up snob, and that he was already not going to like it regardless.
My friend and I went to the concert last night, and had a blast. She had gotten into EC through me, and I know she abhors country music, so I was skeptical when she got us tickets. I told her that the show would most likely be bluegrass, and heavily rearranged versions of classics, so I think she was a little worried too. But she got SP&SC, and loved it, and really enjoyed the concert last night too.
So pbbblhhh to those anonymous bloggers who don't get it! The second guy (whoever wrote the "Trapped" article) sounded like a stuck-up snob, and that he was already not going to like it regardless.
Last edited by Lester Burnham on Sun Jun 14, 2009 2:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
It would be very sad if Elvis, who is now in his 50s, came out and did the hackneyed 'angry young man' thing like it was 1979. Give me a fucking break.
Re: EC & Sugarcanes at Wolf Trap, June 11 '09
A few more notes after seeing the setlist...at the end of Brilliant Mistake, Elvis did a couple lines from "Tangled Up in Blue" ("she was married when we first met...") as he has done a few times since 1987.
The final verse of Scarlet Tide was also revised, dropping the "admit you lied" rewrite that started in 2005. I guess this was aimed at George W and he's no longer in power, so...I think the new verse went like this
I thought I heard a black bell toll
Tolling without an end
No more lives to waste
No more money to spend
Or something quite like it
Dave
The final verse of Scarlet Tide was also revised, dropping the "admit you lied" rewrite that started in 2005. I guess this was aimed at George W and he's no longer in power, so...I think the new verse went like this
I thought I heard a black bell toll
Tolling without an end
No more lives to waste
No more money to spend
Or something quite like it
Dave