Does Elvis Costello still play his early material?
 

I've never seen Elvis Costello. He's tourning with the Imposters. I'm interested, but not if he doesn't cover at least some of his older material. Does anyone know if he does? Thanks in advance.

I've seen him twice - in 2002 and then in 2006 - and in both shows he did a lot of early songs (such as "Pump It Up" and "Radio Radio").

Sweet! Thanks so much for the quick response. Tickets go on sale for his Baltimore show on Saturday. At $60.00 a pop. It would be hard to convince anyone to go with me if he only did recent stuff. Bowie did that a few times. A lot of very unhappy fans.

Yep. Stuff from all eras of his career, including a good amount of the early stuff.

Yep, what they said. I've seen him a few times, and each time it was a cool mix of stuff.

Yup. I saw him on the last tour with Allen Toussaint, and it was half songs from the new album, half "Costello's greatest hits" with new arrangements with Toussaint. It was AWESOME. Also it was a really long show (I think they played for about 3 hours), which was nice because I felt like I was getting my money's worth.

Don't miss this tour! He's playing small places like the House of Blues in LA.

Elvis still kicks ass in concert despite the fact that his later albums are "an aquired taste".

Go! You won't regret it, no matter what he plays.

The guy has such a diverse and large catalog there will always be personal favorites that don't get played, but there's so much great material it really matters little.


GO!

I've seen EC 4 times in the past 3 years, he does play alot of early material. This mini tour is to support his 2 Greatest hits cds that are coming out, "Rock and Roll Music" "The 1st Ten Years." The songs run from "My Aim is True" to "Blood and Chocolate" and to promote the albums coming out on itunes.

No dates in the southeast for this :(.

LISTEN TO 12THMONKEY ON THIS GET YOUR TICKETS, GO, HAVE FUN, DANCE!

Here's the setlist from the L.A. show, taken from an Elvis mailing list that I subscribe to.

Welcome To The Working Week
Shabby Doll
The Beat
Lovers Walk
Party Girl
Strict Time
Big Tears
Clubland
Beyond Belief
Shallow Grave
Kinder Murder
Alibi
Watching The Detectives
American Gangster Time (new song! I'm guessing the title)
Lipstick Vogue
Watch Your Step - with a couple lines from Secondary Modern
Riot Act - last song of the main set

Encores (three sets of them -- yes, EC is back to that old trick):

Dissolve
Uncomplicated
The Imposter
All I've Got To Do (the Beatles song! a highlight)
High Fidelity
Man Out Of Time
(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea - new arrangement
Radio, Radio
Pump It Up
Alison - EC solo
Little Triggers
Motel Matches
(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?

This set looks much better than a "greatest hits" show. Glad to see "Trust" represented so well and really hope he plays "Party Girl" when I see him.

By the way, I ended up with spare ticket for the May 11th show in Detroit that I'm selling at cost. If anyone is interested, please send me an e-mail.

Kinder Murder, Alibi, and Strict Time. That's hot.

I can't even imagine how much money I'd be willing to pay to see EC play "Shabby Doll".

Cripes. My girlfriend is dragging me to the Chicago show and I just realized that I know only a handful of those songs. I guess it's her payback for dragging her to see Lindsey Buckingham with me recently.

Just picked up tix for the Detroit show next week. That tracklist makes me very happy. :)

:lol: Costello as payback? I really feel sorry for you! (jk)

I've been a fan of Costello for a long time. I remember going in a record store when I was a teenager and purchasing Get Happy on vinyl. The record store clerk made a comment about how he was surprised a kid was buying that album (I dunno, I heard "Opportunity" on the radio and liked it).
Anyway, I finally went and saw him last year during his tour where the first half was his classical piece followed by mellow tunes done with orchestra. I have to admit I started getting bored! Surprised me. I think I should have waited for this current tour of rockin' old hits.

Question:
Has Burnt Sugar ever been released by EC?
I heard him do it a few years ago in Chicago, and have found a couple of live boots of varying quality.

It's one of those really powerful songs that hit my wife and I very hard on a personal level, as we were just patching up our marriage at the time. Just a great song....

Oh what a burden. To have to go see Elvis Costello play some of his best material. What a horrible girlfriend you must have. -confused-

:lol: Don't get me wrong, I enjoy his work, and respect him greatly as a musician, but I've never been into him enough to actually accumulate his works and know anything other than the hits. But this is how we learn new things, right?

She recently "dragged me" to a Morrissey concert, and I brushed up on his most recent albums, which I found myself enjoying greatly. She, in turn, knew nothing of Lindsey Buckingham's work (outside of Fleetwood Mac) and actually thanked me for turning her on to him, she was so impressed.

I'll probably find a recent setlist, make a cd and get familiar with the tracks I don't know off-hand. That's the fun of sharing! ;)

I have a pretty good mix cd of his earlier stuff. E-mail me your address and I'll send you a copy.

Thanks a million, and I sincerely appreciate the offer, but I'm sure I can quickly come up with the tracks through my usual sources. ;)

agghhhhhhh....right on. Enjoy.