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The last time Elvis Costello played in America was at Winterland in late spring last year. After that show, Costello said that he was never coming back to the states. Last night, Elvis and his band, the Attractions, played the first of two sold out shows at the Berkeley Community Theater, on the western leg of a national tour.
So much for promises. Considering last night's performance, Elvis might just as well have kept his promise and stayed home in jolly old England.
It wasn't so much that he sang poorly or that the playing was mediocre, which he did and it was. It's just that if you happened to be up for a drink of water or in the lobby catching a smoke after the Rubinoos opening set, you stood a good chance of missing a good deal of Elvis' act.
Elvis Costello and the Attractions ran on stage at 9 p.m., raced through 16 songs, most of them new, and ran off at 9:45 without so much as asking — as Johnny Rotten did at the Sex Pistols farewell gig at Winterland — "Do you feel like you've been cheated?"
Such are the injustices of life. As a wise old crap-shooter once told me, you pays your nickel and you takes your chances. Those songs that Costello did play were mostly taken from his new album Armed Forces, which has received almost hourly radio play on the local FM stations and has kept alive his image as one of the most eccentric and therefore interesting of the new wave British rockers.
The best of these were "Goon Squad," which opened the show, "Oliver's Army," "Whatever Happened to Peace, Love and Understanding?" and "Party Girls." But the tunes were spat out in such rapid succession that it was impossible to digest one before you were force-fed the next.
"Lipstick Vogue," which featured some outstanding lighting effects, and the closing number "Radio, Radio," both from last year's This Year's Model were the only "oldies" Costello offered all evening.
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