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While you couldn't call this tour completely unexpected given their collaboration forty years ago on Elvis Costello's "The Only Flame in Town" (one of the few Top 100 hits he has ever had in the U.S. and featuring Daryl Hall on backing vocals and in the video), it was still a pleasant surprise back in March when this co-headlining tour was first announced since they hadn't collaborated since then. While Daryl closes out each night, Elvis also gets to do a headlining set of similar length (about an hour and a half), albeit slightly shorter than his normal two to three hours epic sets.
That said, Elvis and his long-serving band The Imposters, joined once again by auxiliary member (since 2021) Charlie Sexton, started off the night in rocking fashion by opening with a relatively straightforward, Attractions-style version of "Pump It Up" followed by "Watching the Detectives" (two of the three songs you are most likely to hear at any Elvis Costello concert with the other, "Alison," also being played on this evening) perhaps making the audience think that they were in for a typical opening set from the seventies and 'eighties legends full of familiar sets played in traditional, well-worn ways.
Any assumption on this part was quickly flattened by the third track, a raucous full-band rearrangement of "No Flag" (the highlight of 2020's Hey Clockface, and on record it's just Elvis solo) and one which much of the audience was likely unfamiliar with. From there, it went further into experimental territory, with several newer tracks, including a song called "A Face in the Crowd" from his upcoming musical of the same name, and even a cover of the Merle Haggard obscurity "No Reason to Quit," a song he hadn't played regularly since 1985 until this tour. Even better was the little-played cover of Mose Allison's "Everybody's Crying Mercy," which he recorded for his 1995 covers album Kojak Variety.
After that, we got more rearrangements of the classics, including a Punch the Clock style "Everyday I Write the Book" (leading this fan to wish for the blistering 1982 live version only found on the Rykodisc reissue as a bonus track, never mind the fact that it's only one of two U.S. top thirty hits he's ever had here), a version of "Mystery Dance" known as the "blues" arrangement that varied wildly from the rockabilly-ish album version or the acoustic demo with an extra verse, and even a version of "Clubland" (a song whose arrangement he and Imposters and former Attractions Steve Nieve and Pete Thomas have been playing around with since 1980 at live shows) that much more closely resembled the Latin jazz/boogaloo of Joe Bataan or Eddie Palmieri than the version found on Trust. He even added a snippet of The Specials' "Ghost Town" (featuring Steve Nieve's melodica as well; it should be noted that Nieve did an instrumental cover of this song on his 1987 solo album Playboy) to make it even stranger and a bit eerie as well. So, if anything, the overarching theme of the set was that of familiarity mixed with new versions of quite familiar material, even as he closed the set out on a familiar, crowd-friendly note with perhaps his two best-known songs, the aforementioned "Alison" and his traditional closer "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?" with the crowd favorite "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" sandwiched in between! As the night continued, this ethos of comforting familiarity mixed with exciting experimentation would also extend into Daryl Hall's set.
It started familiar enough, with the ubiquitous "Maneater" and it was among the eight songs (of the twelve in the set overall) that are extremely well-known and well-loved chestnuts of his days in Hall and Oates (as Daryl Hall and John Oates were colloquially known when they were together). That said, Daryl played way more piano than guitar, completely rearranged "Every Time You Go Away" (originally on 1980's Voices and later a hit for Paul Young, although the original version is much better), and played a mind-bending groove-laden take on "(I Can't Go For That) No Can Do" that had to be witnessed to be believed, so he threw the crowd his share of curveballs as well.
I also loved how at the very end of the set, following a raucous version of "You Make My Dreams" that had the audience dancing in the aisles, he shouted out a quick reference to "NYCNY," a reference to his little-known but creatively amazing track from his 1980 album Sacred Songs. Of his band, seventy-nine year old saxophonist Charlie DeChant, who has played with Daryl since 1976, wowed the crowd with several dazzling solos and was a joy to witness and hear.
Of the four less familiar songs, "In a Philly Mood" (from his 1993 solo album Soul Alone) was a highlight, a nod to his roots growing up in Pottstown, PA and later attending Temple University in north Philly in the mid to late sixties while being inspired by the soul/R'n'B groups of the day.
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