Elvis plays New Orleans, LA on 12 March, 2015

[Man out of Time]

Preview of this show by Keith Spera in the New Orleans Times Picayune on December 1, 2014.

"Elvis Costello to bring his spring solo tour to New Orleans in March 2015

Elvis Costello is slated to return to New Orleans, a city with which he has developed an intimate relationship over the past decade, in March 2015. His spring solo tour, cheekily dubbed Detour, stops at the Civic Theatre on March 12. Tickets go on sale Friday, Dec. 5.

The 13-date Detour tour kicks off March 1 in Boulder, Colo., and concludes on March 18 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. He recently logged five weeks of solo shows in Europe.

Costello has been a frequent visitor to the Crescent City in the nine years since Hurricane Katrina. He recorded much of "The River in Reverse," his joint album with Allen Toussaint, at the old Piety Street Studios in Bywater several months after the storm. He and Toussaint subsequently embarked on a much-lauded series of tours that included several joint appearances in New Orleans.

Costello played himself in the pilot episode of HBO's "Treme" series, appearing in a scene with trumpeter Kermit Ruffins at Vaughan's. The show included the Costello/Toussaint recording session in its chronicle of post-Katrina New Orleans.

More recently, Costello took part in a 75th birthday tribute to Toussaint at the Harrah's Casino Theatre between the weekends of the 2013 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival presented by Shell.

In the fall of 1999, Costello performed an almost solo show at the House of Blues; he was accompanied only by Steve Nieve, the longtime keyboardist in his band the Attractions. Here's an excerpt from my review of that show:

"Costello offered up a generous career overview, from his earliest albums to his recent collaboration with veteran popmeister Burt Bacharach. The show ran to nearly 2 1/2 hours; given his rapturous reception in the sold-out room, he could have played all night. His voice never faltered as he rasped as the anguished romantic or crooned like a Tony Bennett-style balladeer. He wielded acoustic and electric guitars with the style and grace of a matador with a cape. Such was his intensity that he seemed to have difficulty occupying his hands when they weren't strumming a guitar; he generally kept his left hand thrust in his pocket, and clasped his right to the microphone stand. ...

"The spartan retooling of 'Watching the Detectives' was a revelation. Costello sliced off concise, dirty chords on an electric as Nieve karate-chopped the upper-register piano keys, before finally slamming the piano shut. The longing of 'Alison' and 'Veronica' burned through. The audience matched his intensity by shouting back the chorus of the rousing 'Pump It Up.'

"That Costello is still passionate about material written 20 years ago made his set especially immediate. After four encores, he finally asked for and received quiet so that he could sing directly to the audience, without the microphone. He briefly pantomimed trombone and sax parts for levity, but mostly laid himself bare in a direct, naked communication with his listeners. It was an intimate finale to a very special performance."

As he's coming to town in March, it seems unlikely that he would return for the 2015 New Orleans Jazz Fest."

Apparently recycling is popular in New Orleans.

MOOT

[pophead2k]

Just got my tickets for this! New Orleans, here I come....

[johnfoyle]

Who's going?

[History Repeats]

I will be in New Orleans and happy to provide the set list

NO Larkin-Poe in New Orleans due to a short break from the tour due to Megan's wedding----3 day break, i believe

[johnfoyle]

Preview

http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/be ... ung-man-no

[And No Coffee Table]

Two tweets from the same person, posted three minutes apart:

ran into allen toussaint!

watching elephant videos with cute old ladies in line for elvis costello

[docinwestchester]

Allen's car? (doesn't seem like the type to drive a Rolls, but who knows)

https://instagram.com/p/0Jbww8P2P9/

annmaloneynola
9 minutes ago · Civic Theatre
Hmmm a surprise guest at Elvis Costello at the Civic!

[docinwestchester]

Melissa A. Gibbs ‏@melissaagibbs · 15m15 minutes ago
Elvis Costello @CivicNola #NOLA




Susan Whelan ‏@nolamaven · 2m2 minutes ago
The one and only Elvis Costello.

[And No Coffee Table]

Ghost Train

[And No Coffee Table]

Alain Tousaint special guest of @ElvisCostello Amazing!

[Arch Titus]

Two tweets from the same person, posted three minutes apart:

ran into allen toussaint!

watching elephant videos with cute old ladies in line for elvis costello

That's my girl! Wish I could be there with her!

[And No Coffee Table]

a bit of Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further? with Allen: https://instagram.com/p/0JuqU5uqXJ/

a bit of Alison: https://instagram.com/p/0JvQWeOqX2/

[docinwestchester]

https://instagram.com/p/0JvPpLyfaO/

ed_is_enough
9 minutes ago
Alan Toussaint and Elvis Costello. #NOLA

[docinwestchester]

Shabby Doll snippet: https://instagram.com/p/0JxCuvuqaB/

[And No Coffee Table]

Near end of concert a couple of guys started arguing. Raised voices. Name calling. And then I heard a girl say...

..."Come on, you don't FIGHT at an ELVIS COSTELLO concert!" With all the outrage you can imagine at the situation. what's so funny.....

[And No Coffee Table]

Watch Your Step: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICkB_o5tIfk

[History Repeats]

Setlist

Red shoes
Blue minute
Watch your step
High fidelity
American without tears
Accidents will happen (with story)
The poisoned rose
Church underground
45
River in reverse
---------
@ grand piano
Shipbuilding
Can't stand up... (Blues)
------------
Seated
Walkin' my baby back home
Ghost train (with story)
Josephine (the meanest girl in town) (with megaphone)
Beyond belief
-----------
Detectives
Everyday I write the book

-----------
1st encore - w Allen toussaint
Ascension day
Nearer to you
Who's gonna help brother get further
Deep dark truthful mirror
------------
2nd encore -in TV
Alison
TV is the thing this year
Pump it up
-----------
3rd encore
radio sweetheart>Jackie Wilson said
Shabby doll>here I am baby
Jimmy standing in the rain
Peace love and understanding

[Arch Titus]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=936460609697832

Above link is a great version of Deep Dark Truthful Mirror with Allen Toussaint

From my daughter Baylee whom is a walking encyclopedia of Elvis Costellos catalog at 18 years of age

Last night commerated her sixth show, and it certainly seemed like a great one

[bronxapostle]

a question for some expert statistician (ANCT!) i can't help but feel that this piano version of I CANT STAND UP currently being played, which i have not heard yet, must resemble the slowed version first (?) played on 12-31-81 NYC and as the intro to the regular speed take recently in the IMPOSTER years. am i correct?

[pophead2k]

Fabulous show with Elvis in excellent voice. The Rolls is indeed Allen's. He's had it for years....it used to be parked in front of my apartment when AT would grocery shop.

[docinwestchester]

a question for some expert statistician (ANCT!) i can't help but feel that this piano version of I CANT STAND UP currently being played, which i have not heard yet, must resemble the slowed version first (?) played on 12-31-81 NYC and as the intro to the regular speed take recently in the IMPOSTER years. am i correct?

Posted on another thread:

[bronxapostle]

thanks doc...on quick listen (i'm at work!) it sure sounds like that 12-31-81 take, that WAY BACK THEN, i alternately titled "NEW YEARS EVE style." anybody disagree that it resembles that version AND also the intro that has oft times been starting it off, before hitting the original 'soul' take, in the IMPOSTERS repertoire when they play it now???

[And No Coffee Table]

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/201 ... leans.html

Elvis Costello strips down his hits and lets his lyrics shine in New Orleans concert

By Brett Anderson, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
March 13, 2015 at 12:09 PM, updated March 13, 2015 at 12:27 PM

Where does the heart of a pop song lie, in the hands of the full band that originally recorded it or stripped to its barest essentials of vocal and single-instrument accompaniment? Elvis Costello is too genial a showman to ever make such a question part of his show, but much of his performance at the Civic Theater in New Orleans on Thursday (March 12) night gave reason to ponder the answer.

Save for the handful of songs he performed with Allen Toussaint, a memorable stretch from a night that contained a bunch of them, Costello appeared alone onstage, accompanying himself with guitars and piano. While the British rocker rose to prominence alongside the first wave punks with whom he shared a case of righteous anger, he has always been more songsmith than agitator. Costello's New Orleans show served as a reminder that he is one of the few punk-era songwriters whose catalog could conceivably fuel sing-alongs around the campfire.

Dressed in a dark suit and a hat he could have picked up nearby at Meyer the Hatter, Costello opened with a trio of songs -- "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes," "Blue Minute" and "Watch Your Step" -- originally recorded with the Attractions, his peerless backing band in the 1970s and '80s. Each varied in tempo and tone from its original recording. But reduced to just Costello's voice and thumb-strummed acoustic guitar, the songs evoked memories so strong it was hard not to wish the Attractions, pub rockers with whip-snap R & B chops, would step out from behind the curtain.

Costello's argument for the austere arrangements grew stronger with each passing song in the over two-hour long set. He has done time as a talk-show host, and some of his between-song banter was alone worth the price of admission. "Accidents Will Happen" was preceded by a long anecdote about the comely New Mexico cab driver he claims to have inspired it.

Costello stood before a large replica of a vintage television set whose screen broadcast images of classic 45 singles and legendary musicians, many of them from New Orleans. "That's rock 'n' roll, right there," he said, gesturing to a large photo of Earl Palmer, the New Orleans drummer. He then launched into "Poisoned Rose," a Costello song from the mid-80s that Palmer played on, strangling his hollow-body electric guitar throughout.

By the time Costello moved over to the piano around mid-set, the sold-out crowd was his. A version of "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down" knocked the audience on its heels. A stuttering rave-up that clocked under two minutes in the hands of the Attractions, Costello refocused the song on its pensive lyrics ("I'm the living result/Of a man who's been hurt a little too much"), stretching it into a showcase for a bluesy vocal performance that that owed more than a little to gospel.

From then on, each song seemed to elicit an applause louder than anything before it. Costello's firey rendition of "The River in Reverse," the title track of the 2006 post-Katrina album he recorded with Toussaint at Piety Studios in New Orleans, teased to the eventual appearance of the New Orleans songwriter and piano-man. "He's very shy and retiring, my special guest for the evening," Costello later said of Toussaint, whose floral patterned blazer suggested otherwise.

The duo played effectively loose, particularly on "Ascension Day." Their affection for each other was never more obvious than when Costello stood back to let Toussaint take the lead on "Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further," visibly content briefly to serve as a guitar sideman at his own show.

The concert appeared to be over when Toussaint and Costello left the stage, with the elder musician saying of his friend's post-Katrina advocacy: "There was no one on the planet who cared more about New Orleans than this man."

And then Costello came back, first to nail "Alison," perhaps his biggest hit, which seemed to give him, and the crowd, a second wind. "Pump it Up" was, improbably, rawer than the original, with Costello throwing his fist at the strings of his electric.

It felt like a fitting end, but the songs kept coming: a sweet rendition of Van Morrison's "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)," a stirring, skeletal "Shabby Doll." And then, finally, "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding," sung more or less in unison with the crowd. Costello blew air kisses on his way off the stage.

[WindUpWorld]

Oh my god this sounds like a fantastic show. I've nothing more intelligent to say than: jealous or what!

[docinwestchester]