Sunday, March 06, 2011

Elvis In Hong Kong: Up For Grabs

"Forget Iraq ~ Rebuild New Orleans" - written on the back of Elvis Costello's guitar
Last night the Elvis Costello show rolled through our clotted metropolis of Hong Kong and put on a spectacle worthy of the ages. Throughout his over two-hour solo performance, Elvis finessed, lathered, charmed and slayed with the ferocity and precision of a matador in the ring. The stage was literally "in the round" with the crowd surrounding Elvis and prompting him at times to stroll the periphery, arm raised in mock self-aggrandisement like Mussolini at Rome's Palazzo Venezia. The only thing missing were chants of "Elvis Is King!"

With a wink to China's surveillance state, he opened with "Green Shirt" from 1979's Armed Forces:
There's a smart young woman on a light blue screen
Who comes into my house every night
And she takes all the red, yellow, orange and green
And she turns them into black and white
From there he dipped deeply into his rich catalogue, stretching from his first-ever recording - "Radio Sweetheart" - to the ragtime-inspired, "A Slow Drag With Josephine" off his most recent, the excellent, National Ransom. Highlights included a genuinely acoustic rendition of "Jimmie Standing in the Rain," done without electricity when he stepped away from the mic and unplugged his guitar; a mash-up of "New Amsterdam" and the Beatles' "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away"; a smoldering "Almost Blue," sung again unplugged as he strolled around the stage; a truly moving version of "Shipbuilding; and "Oliver's Army" with the shout out for us, "Hong Kong is up for grabs!"

There were times when a full band would have added more variety and nuance, specifically backing vocals on "Everyday I Write The Book" and the bass line for "Pump It Up." At one point during "Watching The Detectives" his guitar loops descended into a cacophony of ill-placed intentions as he appeared to struggle with trying to be a one-man karaoke machine. But these are minor quibbles for an artist, who at 56, can still dance about architecture with tragic hipsters half his age.



Here's a rough setlist:
Green Shirt
Veronica
Either Side of the Same Town
Bullets for the New Born King
New Amsterdam/You've Got to Hide Your Love Away (Beatles cover)
Jimmie Standing in the Rain
Everyday I Write the Book (a nod to Ron Sexsmith's version)
Bedlam
A Slow Drag with Josephine
Almost Blue
Watching the Detectives
Good Year for the Roses
Radio Sweetheart/Jackie Wilson Said (Van Morrison cover)
Brilliant Mistake
Alison/Somewhere Over the Rainbow/The Wind Cries Mary (Jimi Hendrix cover)
(What's So Funny 'bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?

Encore:
Beyond Belief
All or Nothing At All
She
Shipbuilding
(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
Oliver's Army

Encore 2:
National Ransom No. 2

Encore 3:
My Three Sons
Pump It Up

10 comments:

  1. Thanks David for a great account. I hope you don't mind that I've shared it with some Costello fan sites -

    http://www.elviscostellofans.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8486&p=140891#p140891

    http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Concert_2011-03-05_Hong_Kong

    All the best,

    John Foyle, Dublin, Ireland.

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  2. Hi John - feel free to share it and thanks for stopping by!

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  3. I had tickets for this and then had to give them up at the last minute as I'd managed to come down with the flu that day. So I was hoping the show would suck but of course that's not the case. Your review greatly appreciated even though it makes me feel worse.

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  4. Haha! Hope you feel better and thx for the comment

    Btw - the setlist is "rough" cuz I'm not certain about the order of some of the songs...

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  5. Thanks for posting this David. Think he also played 'My Three Sons' towards the end....possibly the final encore? Great evening.

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  6. Indeed he did - gorgeous version too. Thx Cath!

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  7. Good to see someone reviewed it, and a good account it was. Great show.

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  8. I think 'Almost Blue' was played just after 'Josephine', as Elvis carried on with unplugged performance, and 'Alison' was mixed with some Hendrix song and 'Somewhere over the Rainbow'

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  9. I remembered he played 'Either Side of the Same Town' too, perhaps the second or the third song

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  10. Hi Sze & thank you for the clarification!

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