Wolf Trap!

double dutchess · Post by **double dutchess** » Tue Jul 08, 2003 12:37 pm

Wow. Last night, Elvis was absolutely brilliant.

Here's what I can recall from the set list (in no particular order):

dust
dust2
Deep Dark Truthful Mirror
Pump it Up
I Can't Stand Up (For Falling Down)
I Don't Wanna go to Chelsea
45
So Like Candy
Watching the Detectives
Clubland
Clown Strike
Almost Blue
Uncomplicated
Shipbuilding
What's so Funny About Peace Love and Understanding?

He also played some new songs. I can't wait until North is released! From what I heard, it sounds like it's going to be great!

Goody2Shoes · Post by **Goody2Shoes** » Tue Jul 08, 2003 1:10 pm

He was, indeed, brilliant, but did he not seem a bit surly? Perhaps it was the heat and humidity, or perhaps it was Wolf Trap itself, which I understand he doesn't like a lot. Anyway, I thought it was a great show.

I am pretty sure this setlist is fairly accurate. Any corrections welcome.
1. Everybody's Crying Mercy
2. My Dark Life
3. In The Darkest Place
4. Clubland
5. So Like Candy
6. 45
7. I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea
8. I Wanna Be Loved
9. Clown Strike
10. Toledo
11. Pump It Up
12. Dust
13. Either Side Of The Same Town
14. I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down
15. Uncomplicated
----------
1st encore:
16. Watching The Detectives
17. Almost Blue
---------
2nd encore:
18. Deep Dark Truthfu Mirror/You Really Got A Hold On Me
19. Shipbuilding
20. PLU

Clubland was just brilliant, featured outstanding solos by Steve and Elvis.

Davey provided some nice harmonies on So Like Candy and Either Side, which is an absolutely beautiful song.

Pump It Up was kind of a swingy, summery version, for lack of better words. My first reaction was "light a fire under it, guys", but it really grew on me.

Almost Blue was amazing, but it was marred by a group of people in the back who yelled out "Alison!!!!" in unison at the end of it, and completely wrecked the mood. Elvis stalked off the stage almost immediately like he was mad, and I wouldn't have blamed him.

I also managed to talk the sound guy out of his setlist, and I almost wished I hadn't, because Beyond Belief was on it! I had just a kernel of disappointment that he didn't play it.

I had no Elvis encounter ala Liam. I would love to shake his hand, congratulate him on a fine performance, and oh, I don't know, maybe marry him and bear his children, but I am too shy for that, and actually prefer to worship from afar.

A great evening; can't wait till he comes around here again.

Goody2Shoes · Post by **Goody2Shoes** » Wed Jul 09, 2003 7:18 am

Here's a review from this morning's Washington Post.

I don't think he liked it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... 3Jul8.html

Post by **spooky girlfriend** » Wed Jul 09, 2003 7:25 am

OUCH!

I most resent the slam about "God help us, country Elvis."

EC is a many faceted guy. Pity on those who don't realize that's a good thing - most of the time anyway.

oily slick · Post by **oily slick** » Wed Jul 09, 2003 10:35 am

ah fuck him. every note of music, every word, every minute in the same room is golden. dumbass doesn't even realize how many are early bits.

PlaythingOrPet · Post by **PlaythingOrPet** » Wed Jul 09, 2003 11:00 am

If you think that's bad, take a look at this one from last year at the Manchester Apollo (courtesy of John E's site):

Elvis Costello @ Apollo

TWENTY-FIVE years since his first hit and with a raft of new London bands mining the tense, late-70s new wave scene from which he originally emerged, for Elvis Costello the time for one last hurrah is now.

Earnest and full of pious pretension, Costello has spent the last decade collaborating with string quartets, film directors and past-sell-by-date sixties pop legends, while rarely troubling chart compilers.

Still, admirers have hung on his lyrical dexterity and queer yelping yodel as evidence that he is `a great British songwriter'.

Returning to basics with a three-piece pub-band set-up, this career retrospective proves just how over-rated Costello is as both a performer and writer. His four or five inspired moments - Oliver's Army, Watching The Detectives, I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea, Good Year For The Roses and Shipbuilding - are counter-balanced by whatever else fills up the rest of his 20-odd dusty old albums.

Despite his best efforts to engage the audience through embarrassingly lacklustre singalongs and histrionic guitar antics, Costello and the crowd seem to know we are all just playing for time between his most famous songs.

When he starts to play tracks from his new album, When I Was Cruel, it is to a handful of hesitant applause. Upbeat or downbeat, the new songs are either a pale pastiche of Costello as a kid or melody-free experiments in trying to stay relevant. Throughout, Costello adopts his familiar stance - shoulders hunched, shrugging at his guitar without moving his feet. To his credit, the great pop that he has at his disposal he does not waste. Detectives sprawls out majestically over its sleazy reggae riff and Costello still puts his poignant all into Shipbuilding.

The encore finally provokes a lusty audience rush to the foot of the stage but, once Oliver's Army is speedily dispensed, many are heading for the door, regardless that Costello has a few more songs left to play.

That's why he hates Mancs! Funnily enough I'm about to go out and get off my face with a Mancunian. Lovely person, strange sense of humour though.

*Bunny never misses a chance to take a pop at the Mancs usually*

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Wed Jul 09, 2003 3:55 pm

You're so shallow!

Hope the Manc supports the right team, la!

sulkygirl · Post by **sulkygirl** » Wed Jul 09, 2003 4:45 pm

If ignorance is bliss, then BOTH of these "writers" must be absolutely ECSTATIC.

Christ, the man just walked away with the ASCAP Founders Award. I imagine his peers actually KNEW what they were doing...

Bollocks on Review Columnists!!

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Thu Jul 10, 2003 7:30 am

Here's another WolfTrap review which isn't too complementary (It's titled 'Elvis Costello Bored Audience')

http://www.freelancestar.com/News/FLS/2 ... 03/1031146

Elvis Costello bored audience

The Black Crowes' Chris Robinson steals show from Elvis Costello at Wolf Trap

By KATE MALAY

Date published: 7/10/2003

THE FREE LANCE-STAR

VIENNA--Everyone had something to say except Elvis Costello. His Monday night performance at Wolf Trap was, to say the least, understated.

Four songs in, the tyke in the row behind me announced, "I'm ready to go to sleep, daddy!"

"Shhh!" the bootlegger with a tape recorder at my side continually spat. (At me.)

Costello performed an eclectic sampler of singles from 1977 to the present, including crowd favorites "Pump It Up," "Shipbuilding" and "Watching the Detectives." But I and many others left unsatisfied.

Costello has one of the most enduring legacies and diverse repertoires in the industry, and yet he did not once address the audience and rarely moved from his hunched stance at the microphone. His is among the most lucid voices ever recorded, but his enunciation and register were both unjustifiably wanting.

He sang, "I Wanna Be Loved," someone shouted, "We love you!" and he didn't even flinch. If I wanted a redundant, plastic performance, I'd play vinyl.

There was one real performer that night, at least, in the form of the Black Crowes' lead singer Chris Robinson, who is stealing a few of the shows on Costello's nationwide summer tour. His opening performance was upbeat and soulful, he responded to the crowd, and he showcased his talent brilliantly.

I got to meet Robinson, and he is exceptionally gracious and charming. Worth noting? Yes. He stole the show before the audience even knew it, and it was inevitable that we would be left wanting more from the headliner.

Then came Elvis--and ambivalence.

I came in thinking all his songs sounded like something others--from the Clash to Roy Orbison--had already done better.

But he has collaborated on duets with everyone in the music industry, he has been around for 25 years, and he did almost sell out the venue.

Maybe I just don't get it.

Date published: 7/10/2003

cbartal · Post by **cbartal** » Thu Jul 10, 2003 1:15 pm

Does anyone think that perhaps after over 2 straight years of Elvis being all things to all people; being available to the media and even cheerful about it 24/7; from hosting late night talk shows to in store appearances and signings, to Frasier, to The Simpsons, to the Rock and Roll Hall of fame, to the Grammys, to People magazine and the rest of the tabs etc, etc, etc.... that maybe Elvis is making a conscious effort to withdraw a little and let the music do the talking again for a while?

As someone stated in one of the previous concert reviews, he hardly addressed the audience during the Chicago show either, being more Napolean Dynamite than the Beloved Entertainer. In some ways it brought a refreshing intensity to the performance.

As the artwork for North suggests, maybe Elvis is making a calculated attempt at returning to a more traditionally brooding Elvis.

Or I could be full of sh*t as usual.

PlaythingOrPet · Post by **PlaythingOrPet** » Thu Jul 10, 2003 3:00 pm

Otis Westinghouse wrote:You're so shallow!

Hope the Manc supports the right team, la!

By "the right team", I take it you're referring to Man U?

She fookin' does, our kid!

.