Elvis plays Fremantle, Oct 8 '09

[johnfoyle]

Anyone here going?

Preview -

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0 ... 92,00.html

[johnfoyle]

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/200 ... site=perth





Photos -

http://musicfascination.com/index.php?e ... 1255056274


- including -



Posted by Jared on October 8, 2009

More photos -

http://www.wireimage.com/ItemListings.a ... 822&nbc1=1

[johnfoyle]

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/entert ... on-target/




Elvis still on target

SIMON COLLINS
The West Australian
October 9, 2009, 1:30 pm

"We love you Elvis," one fan yelled as Elvis Costello kicked off his solo Australian tour in Fremantle on Thursday evening.

"We love you too," the 55-year-old punk turned troubadour replied.

We? The bespectacled rocker - who coupled his trademark specs with a nifty camel Stetson - wasn't referring to the royal We, rather his big collection of guitars that formed a wide semi-circle in the background during his one-man show.

What's the collective noun for guitars? A Clapton? A Van Halen? A Les Paul of axes?

Anyway, Costello and his Hendrix of guitars turned on a brilliant performance that reached back to his 1977 debut My Aim is True, kicking off with (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes and ending the main set with a nostalgic singalong to Alison.

On the way, he seamlessly dropped in tracks off his latest album, Secret, Profane and Sugarcane, recorded in Nashville with producer T Bone Burnett, and even played a number from his unfinished Hans Christian Andersen musical.

Many of the 1600 fans gasped as Costello unveiled a new track, Condemned Man, about an unrepentant character facing execution with a "cold-hearted cackle". The jet-black humour of this song was perfect for the arts centre stage next to the old asylum; "I hear the executioner has got a brand new kink/He's giving me cyanide to breathe and strychnine to drink". With its guillotine-sharp lyrics, Condemned Man got a huge reception, almost on par with his big hits.

Costello was in a generous mood all evening; playing a genius version of Bruce Springsteen's Brilliant Disguise, romping through 1989 hit Veronica and delivering the Ron Sexsmith version of his 1983 fave Everyday I Write the Book. He flicked through lyrics on a music stand when a fan shouted for Indoor Fireworks - Costello dutifully delivered.

While we swooned to Good Year for the Roses, we also went with Elvis on a frenetic rattle through Bedlam off 2004's The Delivery Man. In many of the songs, Costello used the space around the microphone to modulate his idiosyncratic voice.

Watching the Detectives saw him use a series of pedals to create loops out of riffs torn out of a gold electric guitar he used for just that 1977 reggae-rhythmed classic, while he dipped back to one of his earliest compositions, the rocking Radio Sweetheart.

After a relatively straightforward rendition of Alison, Costello quietly wandered off stage, leaving roadies to set up some more speakers and the chair from which he played the excellent Sulphur to Sugarcane, co-written with Burnett on the new album. All or Nothing at All, a jazz-era song famously covered by his wife, Diana Krall, followed before Drum and Bone off last year's Imposters album, Momofuku, and Charles Aznavour's She left us hollering for one more - "Just one more" - song.

Costello chose to leave us with (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding - a song penned by his old mate Nick Lowe that has become one of his signatures - and we chose to leave him with a standing ovation as he took a long, deep bow. Despite roaming far and wide across his and other's catalogues, Elvis proved that 32 years after the first album, his aim remains true.

[Neil.]

Ah, so jealous! Love an Elvis solo gig with just him and his guitar!

That said, hats are bad for a live gig - don't want a shadow over half his face - he's not going bald, if that's what the hat's about. He really does look absolutely fine without the hat.

[Neil.]

P.S. any idea what the reason is for the Australian tour? Hope that doesn't sound churlish - I just mean, in terms of making money? It's a long way to go, and the album's been out a while now. I suppose the takings for the gigs would certainly cover the air fare, accomodation for him and the road crew etc. - any Australian fans care to comment on how well attended the gigs are? I always find it hard to gauge Elvis's popularity, even in Britain!

[scielle]

That said, hats are bad for a live gig - don't want a shadow over half his face - he's not going bald, if that's what the hat's about. He really does look absolutely fine without the hat.

Hear, hear! Seriously, Elvis, please ditch the hats. They look far more ridiculous than any receding hairline.
Mind you, I'm all for men with fedoras. OUTDOORS. The Rufus episode of Spectacle? Totally ruined by that red thing on his head.

[Ypsilanti]

...just a few words in defense of the hats...
I get the point about the shadows on the face and all, but I think Elvis wears them because he likes them--not so much about the baldness. He's been wearing hats almost right from the start--although he does wear them more often now. The hats he chooses are always beautifully made and unusual--I think they really mean something to him--like the bespoke suits and the french cuffs and so forth. I think he really identifies with that kind of old-timey, "dressed-up" man gear. He also seems to have a thing about staying warm (any normal person would die of heat stroke up on stage with all that physical exertion and hot lights etc, yet he stays buttoned up in suit and tie). Maybe less hair means he needs to keep the noggin warm.

Anyway, in spite of the shadows they cast, I love the hats. And I have to say...that red furry one is my favorite.

[johnfoyle]

Neil wonders -

any Australian fans care to comment on how well attended the gigs are?

The 'paper review mentions -

Many of the 1600 fans gasped as Costello unveiled a new track

'Net sources say Fremantle Arts Centre has a capacity of 2,300. 1,600 sounds good to me.

[sweetest punch]

Alison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qD1W6KUFSs

[johnfoyle]

Jean posts to listserv-



Sunday Times of Perth Confirms EC is a Nice Guy

Can't find this on the web version of the paper, it's from ProQuest:

Elvis sighted in Leederville store

By JON BASSETT

ALL-ROUND pop-rock-punk-country music nice guy Elvis Costello wandered
into a late-closing Leederville record shop and snapped up The
Beatles' latest remixed releases in a $450 spending spree on Tuesday.

Fresh off a plane from Singapore before his gig at the Fremantle Arts
Centre on Thursday, Costello, 55, walked into Urban Records about
8.45pm.

"I think he'd just had fish and chips next door," shop assistant Lance
McLeod said.

"We all went, `that guy looks like Elvis Costello', but it wasn't
until he left that we realised it was." As well as The Beatles albums,
Costello snapped up a copy of the latest Barbra Streisand album, Love
is the Answer, which was co-produced by his wife, Canadian jazz singer
Diana Krall.

Costello is revered by fans around the world, but he was the diplomat
while waiting like any shopper as Mr McLeod dug out the CDs from
behind the counter.

"He said then he preferred to support an independent record store and
wait," Mr McLeod said.

[johnfoyle]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/st ... 77,00.html

Elvis Costello's claim to greatness enhanced

Polly Coufos

October 13, 2009
The Australian

Elvis Costello. Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth. October 8.

BUTTONED up against a winter-like chill delivered by the Fremantle Doctor from the nearby coast, a very healthy looking Elvis Costello gave a 100-minute solo performance that stretched from the B-side of his first single (Radio Sweetheart) to an as-yet unreleased song (Condemned Man), and mixed album tracks with a few surprise cover versions. With every second on stage, the 55-year-old suggested he loves life at present. After a couple of bars of Almost Blue, he stopped and instead played All Or Nothing At All, a song associated with his wife, Diana Krall. This mood was continued with a tender reading of Charles Aznavour's She that displayed his full expressive powers as a vocalist as well as his state of mind.

During his many trips to Australia in the past 31 years, it has become apparent that playing acoustic (and mostly solo) is Costello's ideal live setting. Without a band to shout over, his singing is much warmer and his audience interaction more playful. Intimate, engaging and great fun, last Thursday's show in the grounds of a one-time mental asylum ranked with the very best he has offered Perth.

Although a tour repertoire that arrived the following morning from his publicist suggested otherwise, in the crowd it felt as if he was flying by the seat of his pants and making song choices on a whim.

Surely he must have been at some points, such as when he charged into a rough and ready cover of Bruce Springsteen's Brilliant Disguise that turned into an unlikely singalong. Van Morrison's Jackie Wilson Said seemed to appear from nowhere and was similarly embraced.

From his own material he pulled a riotous reaction from the notoriously quiet Perth audience on such unlikely fare as She Was No Good from his latest album, Secret, Profane and Sugarcane, and Radio Sweetheart. He introduced Everyday I Write the Book as "a song I used to hate" and played Indoor Fireworks after hearing someone yell for it.

This was a sublime example of a veteran artist finding the place where he gave the audience (some of) the hits and memories they craved while adding songs that mean most to him at present. He illuminated every suggestive line from Sulphur to Sugarcane to side-splitting effect and, when stripped back to their bones, recent songs such as Either Side of the Same Town and Drum and Bone show he's still capable of composing greatness. This concert showed he's also still more than capable of performing greatness.

[krm]

not much.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzfVkLPoBys