Elvis/Imposters, Los Angeles, May 11/12 '11

[johnfoyle]

Who here is going?

[woz]

I'll be there. Looking forward to the shows and seeing fellow EC fans as always.

[johnfoyle]

Preview -

http://www.latimes.com/theguide/events- ... 7634.story

[And No Coffee Table]

Night 1 setlist:

Pre-wheel:
01. I Hope You're Happy Now
02. Tear Off Your Own Head (It's A Doll Revolution)
03. Mystery Dance
04. Radio, Radio

Wheel:
05. Everyday I Write The Book
06. Let Me Roll It (McCartney song, it was great even if EC's ability to play the riff is in question)
07. Leave My Kitten Alone (not on the wheel)
08. Pump It Up in 6/8 / Busted (EC ignores a "Napoleon Solo" jackpot and moves the wheel to this)
09. Brilliant Mistake
10. Beyond Belief
11. The Long Honeymoon (with EC wandering into the crowd)
12. I Want You (EC gives up on rigging the wheel and just plays the song which has already been requested twice)

"Time" Jackpot:
13. Clowntime Is Over
14. Strict Time
15. Next Time 'Round
16. Out Of Time (Rolling Stones song, fantastic)
17. Man Out Of Time

Encore 1:
18. A Slow Drag With Josephine - EC solo
19. Jimmie Standing In The Rain - EC solo, including Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?
20. Flutter & Wow
21. Alison - including The Wind Cries Mary, Over The Rainbow and Somewhere

Encore 2:
22. All Grown Up - EC & Steve Nieve

"Girl" Jackpot:
23. Girl
24. Sulky Girl

25. (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea
26. Lipstick Vogue
27. Watching The Detectives
28. National Ransom (the one bronxapostle calls National Ransom No. 3)
29. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding? - including The Kids Are Alright


In addition to the new "Time" jackpot, there was also a "Beauty Or The Beast?" jackpot which didn't come up.

[bronxapostle]

now that setlist is surely starting to look super sweet ANCT! can't wait to see what you've written tomorrow this time. that NR; i call it Attractions version. that's a great show you got last night, huh? enjoy tonight!

[sulky lad]

What a fantastic setlist - you lucky b*****s !! Still no UK dates - I'm dreaming of a lotto win so I can quit work and come over for a while .

[docinwestchester]

Please let there be tapers in LA. I want to hear this show in my car NOW.

[bronxapostle]

Night 1 setlist:


"Time" Jackpot:
13. Clowntime Is Over
14. Strict Time
15. Next Time 'Round
16. Out Of Time (Rolling Stones song, fantastic)
17. Man Out Of Time

ANCT...was this ORIGINAL GET HAPPY CLOWNTIME or bside VERSION II played most often in the early 80's please?????

[And No Coffee Table]

Please let there be tapers in LA. I want to hear this show in my car NOW.

There were at least three, and one of them has posted a lot of stuff on Dime.

ANCT...was this ORIGINAL GET HAPPY CLOWNTIME or bside VERSION II played most often in the early 80's please?????

As played in 2002: The slow B-side version for most of the song, then a shift to the album version at the end.

[Man out of Time]

Encore 2:
22. All Grown Up - EC & Steve Nieve

According to the Wiki, Elvis last played this song live in September 1991 at the end of a tour with the Rude 5 promoting MLAR.

Wiki page here: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/inde ... l_Grown_Up

Steve does not appear to have ever played this song live before last night.... I would like to hear how it sounds.

MOOT

[And No Coffee Table]

Elvis said something like "We're going to do one we've never played before." I meant to mention it as one of the show's highlights, and it was certainly unexpected.

[Man out of Time]

In addition to the new "Time" jackpot, there was also a "Beauty Or The Beast?" jackpot which didn't come up.

Offers for what this might yield, if it came up?

My thoughts would include:

Beauty -
All This Useless Beauty,
Deep Dark Truthful Mirror;
Girls Talk;
Lipstick Vogue;
She Handed Me The Mirror;

Beast -
Kinder Murder;
The Beast In Me;
20% Amnesia.

any other ideas?

MOOT

[And No Coffee Table]

He hasn't played it in forever, but I was thinking "Little Savage" for beast.

[sweetest punch]

Everyday I Write The Book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX9Pa5rACbI

[woz]

I was hoping he would play Girls Talk a part of the Girl jackpot last night. Regardless, he and the band sounded great and the wheel was as good as ever.

[FAVEHOUR]

In addition to the new "Time" jackpot, there was also a "Beauty Or The Beast?" jackpot which didn't come up.

Offers for what this might yield, if it came up?

My thoughts would include:

Beauty -
All This Useless Beauty,
Deep Dark Truthful Mirror;
Girls Talk;
Lipstick Vogue;
She Handed Me The Mirror;

Beast -
Kinder Murder;
The Beast In Me;
20% Amnesia.

any other ideas?

MOOT

How about the cover he did of "Beautiful"?

Dave

[sweetest punch]

A Slow Drag With Josephine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k2vEdP_WHQ
Next Time Around / Out Of Time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMKnR0QW ... er&list=UL
Let Me Roll It To You: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUDtB4i5 ... er&list=UL
Tear Off Your Own Head / Mystery Dance / Radio Radio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVFs58Ro ... er&list=UL

[sweetest punch]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_b ... eatre.html

Live review: Elvis Costello at the Wiltern Theatre

Long before the word “interactive” became an entertainment-industry mantra, Elvis Costello was there with his fabled “Spinning Songbook.”

A quarter century after he first cooked up the idea that exponentially amped up the practice of taking requests from the audience, Costello and his band the Imposters have resurrected the concept for a new generation, although the sold-out crowd on hand Wednesday for the first of two nights at the Wiltern Theatre clearly included a good number of those who’d been following him since his first go-round.

The new Revolver tour sees music as a thing of joy -- something of a revolutionary statement in and of itself in these days, when another of big buzzwords in the music business is monetization. This isn’t the garden-variety promotional tour designed primarily to build familiarity with -- and sales of -- an artist’s latest product, although he did manage to cleverly work in a couple of numbers from his most recent release, “National Ransom,” during an extended round of encores after a 2½-hour set.

Rather, Costello, keyboardist Steve Nieve, bassist-vocalist Davey Farragher and drummer Pete Thomas played like guests of honor at the most invigorating kind of living room party where attendees challenge one another in a combination of “Name That Tune” and “Top That!”

The Spinning Songbook wheel itself lends an additional measure of festiveness, allowing the always-engaging Costello to fully inhabit his alter ego as a raconteur and master of ceremonies par excellence, something he showcased regularly on his Sundance cable channel series “Spectacle.”

Without fanfare, Costello and the band strode onstage Wednesday and let loose an initial four-song volley that began with “I Hope You’re Happy Now” from 1986’s “Blood & Chocolate,” segued directly into “Tear Off Your Own Head (It’s a Doll Revolution)” and crested into his freshman and sophomore album songs, “Mystery Dance” and “Radio Radio,” the latter maybe a little too fast and furious for its own good.

But with the take-no-prisoners ambiance established, the host traded his porkpie hat for a dapper silk top hat and quickly obliterated anything resembling a fourth-wall between performer and audience.

A comely assistant helped choose fans to come onstage and spin the 10- to 12-foot-in-diameter brightly colored wheel with 32 song titles representing Costello classics (“Alison,” “Pump It Up,” “Veronica”) to esoteric (“Flutter & Wow,” “Monkey to Man,” “Stella Hurt”) to a smattering of covers (Paul McCartney’s “Let Me Roll It,” Lennon-McCartney’s “And Your Bird Can Sing” -- do we detect a theme here?).

The wheel also held eight purple “bonus” strips with words such as “Happy,” “Time,” “Girl” and “Napoleon Solo,” the latter, Costello explained when it came up midway into the show, a license for him to choose anything he felt like playing at the moment. (At that moment it was “Leave My Kitten Alone,” a celebrated outtake most famously associated with -- surprise! -- the Beatles.) When the wheel later landed on “Time,” he told the audience it served as a theme for which he’d come up with as many songs mentioning “time” as he could. That yielded a playful set-within-the-set that included “Clown Time Is Over,” “Next Time 'Round,” the Rolling Stones’ “Out of Time” and back to his own “Man Out of Time.”

Costello asked the first wheel spinner which song she most hoped to hear (“I Want You,” she said; “I think that’s a song title,” Costello drolly replied and then let it rip. It landed on “Everyday I Write the Book,” which the band gamely served up as the fan looked on from a stool at a bar in the “Society Lounge” positioned in front of Nieve’s bank of keyboards, a cool drink in her hand supplied by Costello’s lovely assistant. Other selectees took advantage of the “Hostage to Fortune Go-Go Cage” at Costello’s right, flashing their footwork while the band pounded away nearby.

And on it went. The random element certainly helped keep the musicians on their toes and prevented the possibilities of a rote performance from slavish adherence to a set list.

Costello’s his own best friend in that regard, having written himself a stockpile of hundreds of songs over the last 35 years, a remarkably deep storehouse of some of the most pointed, literate and finely crafted songs of the rock era. When he turned near the end to a solo performance of the "National Ransom" song “A Slow Drag With Josephine,” a dazzling marriage of melody, words, rhymes, ideas and acoustic guitar finger-picking, he left no doubt that he’s evolved into a writer every bit the master of song craft as anyone who ever came out of Tin Pan Alley.

In the end, it created an evening that went well beyond merely interactive, the kind of uniquely invigorating experience that warrants a buzzword all its own: inspiring.

[docinwestchester]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_b ... eatre.html

Live review: Elvis Costello at the Wiltern Theatre

Now that's a review but someone who knows something about Elvis. 6 more days til he hits NY/NJ!

[verbal gymnastics]

Very true - a reviewer who knows about Elvis, understands the, gasp, FUN, of it all and what it's all about.

Sounds like a great show.

Fantastic covers - bronx must be going wild

[Harry]

It seems like Elvis is on a bit of a roll. Every time I've seen a clip of him playing live lately the magic and intensity is back. The set list was a corker.
Hope he comes back to London soon.

[FAVEHOUR]

Wishes granted:

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-deta ... mm=4729202

[johnfoyle]

Another detailed and very informed review -

http://www.ocregister.com/entertainment ... ltern.html

[bronxapostle]

Wishes granted:

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-deta ... mm=4729202

yeah...just listening to mp3; would love the ENTIRE LET ME ROLL IT! but, can these digital recordings w/ neighboring fans 'howling" be enjoyed???

[sweetest punch]

http://www.ocregister.com/entertainment ... ltern.html

Elvis Costello spins an epic at the Wiltern

By BEN WENER
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Out of 20-some shows in 20-some years of encountering Elvis Costello live, from suddenly announced club gigs to lavish evenings with Burt Bacharach, I’ve probably seen two or three consistently stronger performances than the one he and his first-rate band the Imposters turned in Wednesday night, their first of two sets at the art-deco Wiltern in Los Angeles this week.

But I don’t think I’ve seen a better one overall, and none have been nearly as memorable -- in part because, like the Bacharach teaming, I know this is something I’ll likely never see again. Surely those who witnessed the debut of this Spectacular Singing Songbook idea at the Beverly Theater in 1986 must have felt the same way: by its very nature, the concept guarantees no other show will be quite the same.

That night, as part of a stretch of themed performances that included a set with the Attractions and another with the Confederates (the one-off group that backed him on the rootsier advances of King of America), Costello unveiled this most crowd-enlivening of his many concert conceits over the years: a stage design adorned with a shimmering go-go cage at one end (guests are welcome to dance) and a giant carnival wheel at the other, covered in yellow and red (and a few purple) wedges, with song titles on each. (At the Wiltern, this scene was further enhanced by an encompassing backdrop of a faded old TV set locked on a color test pattern.)

“The theatrical marvel of the age” was how our host described it with vaudevillian exaggeration Wednesday night, just after a brisk four-song opening that harked back not only to his earliest days (via rips through “Mystery Dance” and “Radio Radio,” as breakneck-paced as ever) but also to the life-changing, career-shifting era from whence the Spinning Wheel emerged. It’s telling that he seems to be opening all of these Revolver Tour engagements (the month-long run began in Reno and ends with three nights at NYC’s Beacon Theatre) with “I Hope Your Happy Now” -- that’s among his fiercest (yet buoyant) attacks on lost love, yet its title sentiment couldn’t be more fitting.

Back in ’86, when the brilliantly thorny Blood & Chocolate was dumped into the marketplace mere months after the heralded King of America, Costello was just beginning to come out of turmoil, divorcing both his first wife and first stateside label, altering course by taking up with (and soon marrying) then-Pogues bassist Cait O’Riordan and moving from Columbia Records (which failed to promote him sufficiently) to Warner Bros. (where he wound up facing the same problem). Seemingly liberated both creatively and romantically, he nonetheless still seemed trapped by the industry.

These days, though record execs still don’t know what to do with him, Costello, 56, is a much happier entity unto himself: revered singer-songwriter, iconic yet iconoclastic Hall of Famer, encyclopedic talk-show host, Mr. Diana Krall. He’s a major-label artist working in independent fashion, issuing genre-hopping projects from a widening array of niche-filling outlets (although lately he’s suggested he may not make another album).

These Wiltern shows ostensibly promote last November’s National Ransom, one of his best assortments. Yet, despite a sublime solo-acoustic first encore comprised of the disc’s two bittersweet tunes that evoke the ’20s and ’30s -- the deceptive swing of “A Slow Drag with Josephine” and the doleful lament “Jimmie Standing in the Rain,” both of which lent some structure to the evening’s play-it-as-it-lays approach -- revisiting the Spinning Songbook right now seems primarily a lark. It’s something fun to do simply because he can.

And to some extent it isn’t as fully rehearsed as you might expect. When the wheel landed on Paul McCartney’s “Let Me Roll It,” it was apparent in Costello’s chunky assessment of the song’s signature squiggle riff that he hadn’t attempted it much, nor did the Imposters always know where their bandleader was headed during a striking rethinking of “Pump It Up” that traded the usual thump-thump-thump for a strolling N’awlins piano blues in 6/8.

Even on numbers this bunch has dashed through dozens, maybe hundreds of times -- “Everyday I Write the Book,” “I Want You” -- there was still a sense of winging it, of the band instinctively knowing where to go next yet being confounded when Costello would decide to, say, turn back into a chorus sooner than expected, or scuttle from one dynamic to another.

That’s what I mean about experiencing greater consistency elsewhere: When they know precisely what’s on the setlist, Costello and his group tend to lock in magnificently, maintaining tighter parameters around their expansiveness and explosiveness. But that’s also what I mean about never seeing a show like this again: Costello has rarely been so loose yet still commanding, and so eager to mix in the unexpected. Never mind the McCartney tune -- when else are you likely to hear him consecutively play complete versions of most every tune he has with “Time” in the title?

That’s what happened when he landed on one of eight “Jackpot” wedges, bonuses that produce several songs on a theme. (Unless “Napoleon Solo” comes up, in which he case he chooses whatever he likes -- this time “Leave My Kitten Alone.”) You can tell he favors landing on a few of these during each show, as he cheated the wheel twice to get “Time” and “Girl” to come up at key points.

Hey, it’s his wheel, he can do as he likes. For instance: Isabella, the woman sitting in front of me, got swept away from her boyfriend by Costello as he sauntered across the floor of the Wiltern during “The Long Honeymoon,” then returned to the stage with her on his arm. She wanted to hear “I Want You,” but first the wheel hit “Stella Hurt” and then “New Lace Sleeves.” Costello was undeterred: “You know what? We’re just gonna play ‘I Want You.’ Damn show-business machinery!”

The Jackpot wedges were certainly worth tilting the wheel for, however. “Time,” which he nudged toward instead of “Accidents Will Happen,” yielded first the slow version of “Clowntime Is Over,” then a rollicking “Strict Time” and “Next Time Round,” a singalong for the Rolling Stones’ “Out of Time” and finally a suitably mighty “Man Out of Time” to end the main set. (In Oakland, at the Fox Theater, he landed on “I Can Sing a Rainbow” the second night and performed color songs: “Green Shirt,” “Blue Chair,” “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes,” a bit of “Purple Rain.”)

“Girl,” on the other hand, which he spun into place after a dramatic reading of “All Grown Up” abetted only by pianist Steve Nieve (the first time they’ve performed that 1996 track), helped build to a roaring third-encore conclusion. It began with a lovely handling of the Beatles’ “Girl,” followed by the aptly titled “Spooky Girlfriend” and “Sulky Girl.” (Oakland also got “This Year's Girl” and “Party Girl.”) Then came another clutch of Costello standards: “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea,” “Watching the Detectives,” a rousing “(What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding.”

He played 18 songs in the main set, more than half of which were chosen by guests (mostly women) who got to admire their wheel selections while sipping martinis at the on-stage bar next to Nieve. Then Costello changed hats and jackets -- now plaid, now gold lamé -- and played another 13 songs in three encores. It was epic, riveting, constantly surprising -- utterly unforgettable.

Setlist: Elvis Costello & the Imposters at the Wiltern, Los Angeles, May 11, 2011
Main set: I Hope You’re Happy Now / Tear Off Your Own Head (It’s a Doll Revolution) > Mystery Dance > Radio Radio / Everyday I Write the Book / Let Me Roll It (Paul McCartney cover) / Napoleon Solo: Leave My Kitten Alone (Little Willie John cover) / Pump It Up in 6/8 > Busted (Harlan Howard cover) / Brilliant Mistake / Beyond Belief / The Long Honeymoon / I Want You / Time Jackpot: Clowntime Is Over > Strict Time > Next Time Round > Out of Time (Rolling Stones cover) > Man Out of Time
First encore (solo acoustic): A Slow Drag with Josephine / Jimmie Standing in the Rain
Second encore: Flutter & Wow / Alison (with snippets of The Wind Cries Mary, Over the Rainbow, Somewhere)
Third encore: All Grown Up (just Costello and Steve Nieve, live debut) / Girl Jackpot: Girl (Beatles cover) > Spooky Girlfriend > Sulky Girl / (I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea > Lipstick Vogue > Watching the Detectives / National Ransom / (What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding (with closing quote from the Who’s The Kids Are All Right)

Also listed on the Spectacular Spinning Songbook but not played: God’s Comic / New Lace Sleeves / Earthbound / Clubland / Accidents Will Happen / Shipbuilding / Black and White World / Bedlam / The Other Side of Summer / Detectives vs. Hoover Factory / So Like Candy / 45 / Veronica / And Your Bird Can Sing / The River in Reverse / God Give Me Strength / Living in Paradise / You Tripped at Every Step / Monkey to Man / The Element Within Her / Stella Hurt / plus five more Jackpot theme wedges: King’s Ransom, Joanna, Happy (technically landed on but played Alison instead), Beauty or Beast? and I Can Sing a Rainbow