Elvis & The Imposters with Charlie Sexton at Majestic Theatre, Dallas, TX, January 19, 2024

[Man out of Time]

The 7-0-7 Tour with The Imposters and Charlie Sexton continues its progress round Texas and will reach the Majestic Theatre, Dallas on Friday, January 19, 2024.

January 19, 2024 Dallas Majestic Theatre

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The Majestic Theatre opened in Dallas in 1921. It has a capacity of 1,704. Available tickets are priced between $59 and $79.50. The concert is nearly sold out, but a few tickets remain either standard tickets (towards the back of the auditorium) or resale tickets nearer the stage.

Who's going?

MOOT

[Charles]

[TX_Fan]

I'll be there!
Love the Majestic...great venue

[johnfoyle]

Looking forward to reviews

[jimmiintherain]

Going to the show tonight and unexpectedly have an extra ticket in the third row. Anyone interested and available?

[bronxapostle]

Wish I could be there with some great friends...Eric and Lori firstly. Enjoy all of you

[Charles]

Going to the show tonight and unexpectedly have an extra ticket in the third row. Anyone interested and available?

I’m 8th row aisle. Should I resist the temptation?

[sweetest punch]

Setlist: https://elviscostello.info/wiki/index.p ... -19_Dallas

Setlist

01. A Town Called Riddle
02. Waiting For The End Of The World
03. Hetty O'Hara Confidential
04. Radio, Radio
05. Lipstick Vogue
06. Shabby Doll
07. Mistook Me For A Friend
08. Love Field
09. Mystery Dance
10. My Baby Just Squeals (You Heel)
11. I Don't Want Your Lyndon Johnson - including Gimme That Wine
12. Like Licorice On Your Tongue
13. Watching The Detectives
14. Poisoned Rose
15. Blood & Hot Sauce
16. Everybody's Crying Mercy
17. Beyond Belief
18. Dio Come Ti Amo / Almost Blue
19. Clubland - including Ghost Town
20. Pump It Up
21. Magnificent Hurt
22. (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea
23. Alison
24. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?

[TX_Fan]

Loved the show. EC was in pretty good voice & very talkative.
From his newer stuff, I liked "Hetty O’Hara Confidential".
From his older traditional stuff, I enjoyed the unique acoustic guitar version of "Beyond Belief"

[Charles]

Fantastic show! Austin, here I come…

[sweetest punch]

https://www.dallasobserver.com/music/el ... t-18421162

Elvis Costello Sang a Love Letter to Texas at Majestic Theatre
Elvis Costello was happy to play in Dallas, and his love of Texas music showed at his Majestic Theatre concert.

When the lights went down at Majestic Theatre on Friday night, the voice of a midcentury newsreel barker poured out across the historic venue’s immaculate acoustics. It was audio lifted from the trailer for a 1965 black-and-white feature film, Monster A-Go-Go (widely regarded by cinephiles as one of the worst movies of all time).

“Never in your life have you seen such a combination of happy, sad, good, bad, rock-em sock-em action!” the announcement rang out, “Monster A-Go-Go! Monster A-Go-Go! Monster A-Go-Go!”

Indeed it would be, with songs of cheeky joy, nimble misanthropy and gorgeous heartbreak alike. It was a fitting introduction for Elvis Costello & The Imposters to take the stage.

After 47 years of writing, recording, and performing, we’re all quite lucky that one of the most influential songwriters of all time is still touring so prolifically. Starting off 2024 with this Southern-states outing (mysteriously dubbed The 7-0-7 Tour), there’s no new material to promote — Elvis Costello and his longtime backing band seem to be out on the road simply for the love of the game, having just as much fun on stage as the fans are in the audience.

For almost a half century now, Costello has proven himself to be a master of genre-play while still maintaining his singular style of sophisticated guitar-pop and unparalleled knack for crafting melodies in the context of everything from classical music to jazz standards, and beyond. But in the past two decades, he’s leaned heavily into elements of blues, finger-pickin’ country music, and traditional rockabilly — more akin to 1950’s Sun Records compositions (like that other Elvis) than the '80s new wave commercial hits with which he’s so widely associated. So naturally, he was thrilled to be in Texas.

Throughout the night, he regaled a sold-out crowd with his fondest memories of North Texas in storytelling vignettes between songs that almost evoked the audiobook narration of his nearly 700-page autobiography, published in 2015, a veritable treasure trove of personal anecdotes from one of the most brilliant musical minds of our time.

“My first time in Dallas went by in a flash. I ended up somewhere I shouldn’t have been at three in the morning. I had car keys in my pocket, but I didn’t drive. I had house keys in my pocket that didn’t belong to me,” he riffed, “And they were playing all that new wave music on the radio. I fuckin hate that music!”

Sounds pretty true to the Dallas nightlife experience, then and now. It was a delightfully tongue-in-cheek nod to the eternal lament of all musicians: the struggle of stylistic categorization, and its perceptual limitations.

In particular, Costello conveyed a deep fondness for the city of Fort Worth. He spoke endearingly of recording there with T-Bone Burnett and jazz bassist Ray Brown. As the story went, Brown once started off a take in one of those sessions with the warning, “OK, gentlemen, nobody play any ideas.”

“That’s still the greatest thing anyone’s ever said to me while making an album,” the bespectacled frontman gushed.

He even took the audience on a deep dive into early '60s rockabilly obscurity with covers of the virtually unknown single “My Baby Just Squeals (You Heal),” and it’s B-side “I Don’t Want Your Lyndon Johnson” — a used record store find by an unknown band that he swore was originally recorded in Fort Worth on a long-lost label called Justice Records. Instructing a call-and-response to the lyrics, he insisted the crowd sing along loud enough to be heard all the way out there in Cowtown.

Another major point of pride he referenced on stage was the line-up addition of Texas’ own Charlie Sexton, standing in as guest guitarist with The Imposters on this tour. During a bluesy fill on the 1977 powerpop jaunt, “Waiting for the End of the World,” Sexton’s high-level soloing slithered through and wrapped around the form of Costello’s first-album cut with incredible precision. But he was a largely underutilized presence throughout the whole of the set. It would have been great to see more of his technical prowess interpolated into fan-favorites.

The highlight of the night came when some lovely soul in the standing-room orchestra pit called out for “Beyond Belief” (recently featured on the critically revered second season of FX’s The Bear), which seemed to amuse Costello. A few songs later, he sat with a beautiful custom Spanish acoustic guitar in his lap and led The Imposters through a flawlessly improvised country-Western spin on the highly underrated cut from the 1982 album Imperial Bedroom. It was literally a revelation, with Elvis so earnestly excited to ask the audience,

“Did you like that? That was the first time we’ve ever played that song like this!”

They did. They very much liked that. There couldn’t have possibly been a warm body in the room without goosebumps. It was one of those rare one-in-a-million-chance live music moments for which you immediately feel grateful to be in the room.

Not all of these Southern blues-steeped arrangements flowed so seamlessly though, as a slowed and twangy version of “Mystery Dance” came across way too subdued for an otherwise ferocious romp about the maddening sexual frustrations of youth.

Though the night was largely steeped in Southern influences, Elvis Costello does not mess around when it comes to the hits. Faithful versions of “Radio, Radio,” “Pump It Up,” “Alison,” “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea” and “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding” brought the house down. “Clubland” dripped with bossa nova sensuality as pianist Steve Neive tickled the keys and Costello spent the outro crooning The Special’s definitive doom-reggae hit, “Ghost Town.”

Die-hard fans in the crowd had the pleasure of witnessing raucous This Year’s Model deep cut “Lipstick Vogue,” but unfortunately this wasn’t a tight performance from The Imposters’ rhythm section. That’s probably easy to forgive, considering it has by far the fastest tempo and some of the wildest time changes in Costello’s entire repertoire. Because it is definitely not 1978 anymore, and every band with the privilege of a long lifespan has at least one album version from their younger days that just gets too fast to play live as the years go on.

Elvis Costello has made 32 studio albums (and counting) in his career and each of them vary uniquely from one another. In turn, every one of his concerts is unique. With a catalog of songs that large, you’re not going to hear everything you hope to and you’re not going to see the same set twice. What ultimately made this show special was Texas —
specifically North Central Texas. It was an intentional tribute to us, to the brilliant music that comes from here, and the true spirit of this place we call home.

[sweetest punch]

https://newnoisemagazine.com/galleries/ ... dallas-tx/

SHOW REVIEW: ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE IMPOSTERS AT MAJESTIC THEATRE IN DALLAS, TX

Growing up, I would always hear my parents play music by The Who, The Kinks, The Beatles, and Tom Petty either in the house or in the car. They were stable bands my Dad would play; however, once in a while, my Mom would slip in an artist by the name of Elvis Costello. Songs like “Red Shoes” and “Everyday I Write The Book” would stick in my head, and as I got older, I would start buying and researching albums by this prolific musician. I would watch old live videos of his performances and be blown away at how captivating his stage presence was along with his band. Usually, as musicians get older, they tone down their stage presence, but not Elvis Costello. He still gives a memorable show, and his stop in Dallas on the 7-0-7 Tour proved just that.

Once on stage, Elvis would approach the crowd from each end to hype everyone up for the spectacular night. The band would jump straight into “A Town Called Riddle,” to which, right away, the crowd was moving. Right away everyone knew that Elvis & The Imposters were making this a rock ‘n’ roll night; there would be no slowing down. By the fourth song, the momentum was still strong with “Radio Radio” followed by “Lipstick Vogue,” to which you can’t deny that Elvis still has his punk attitude alive and well in him. It should also be mentioned that original Attractions’ drummer, Pete Thomas, and keyboardist, Steve Nieve, shined on these songs and spotlighted their amazing musicianship.

By the middle of the set, Elvis would show his comedic side by telling stories and his love for crate digging at record stores. His love for music goes from playing it to collecting it and according to Elvis when he is visiting cities he will try and visit record shops to find the most obscure 45. If Record Store Day is reading this, they need to make Elvis the next Record Store Day Ambassador. In this case, Elvis explained how he found a 45 by a band from Forth Worth, TX on Justice Records, so had the band learn the songs on the 45 called “My Baby Just Squeals (You Heal)” and “I Don’t Want Your Lyndon Johnson.” This again proves Elvis has a very funny comedic side, and it is wonderful to see him bring his not-so-serious side into the live show.

The highlight for me was when “Watching the Detectives” was played because the first live video I saw of Elvis Costello was this song live from Kohl, Germany. The energy in that video is still seen today in his live performance. The tone of the song leaned more into the reggae/ska feel, and Steve Nieve even plays melodica during the song. Hearing this song live alone is worth the price of admission. Afterward, Elvis would take over on piano duties for songs “Blood & Hot Sauce” and “Everybody’s Cryin’ Mercy” and let featured guest, and Texas native, Charlie Sexton take over on the guitar spotlight.

Before ending the night, Elvis would play out three songs on acoustic guitar, the third being “Clubland.” This version of “Clubland” was reworked to be heavily reggae/ska-influenced and towards the end of the song, Elvis would slip in “Ghost Town” lyrics from The Specials. Elvis produced The Specials’ debut album and with the recent passing of singer Terry Hall, this was a nice tribute to that influential band.

The last five songs of the night were like a grand finale at a fireworks show. From “Pump It Up” to “(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea,” if you could imagine what it would’ve been like to see Elvis Costello in a small club, these songs would be perfect in that setting. Elvis & The Imposters ripped through these songs with such intensity that one couldn’t believe their eyes as to how good it sounded. The guitar he used for these songs, a Ciari the Ascender Folding Guitar, had a high distortion sound that really showed Elvis can still bring that punchy punk sound. Even though “Alison” isn’t a fast number, Elvis moved to the front of the stage to sing most of the song like it was a club setting. Lastly, “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding” closed out the night and left everyone with the highest of spirits.

Elvis Costello & The Imposters may be one of the best live bands still out there, and even though Elvis’ discography covers almost all music genres, this show kept it mostly to straight rock ‘n’ roll. Nothing played felt like a filler, and everyone on stage and in the crowd seemed to be having the time of their life. The 7-0-7 Tour runs until the beginning of February and then heads to Australia; it is imperative to try and catch one of these shows, because this tour is one not to miss.