On September 25, 2003, Elvis Costello and the Imposters played live from New York City for the A&E network's Live by Request show. [CLICK HERE to see when it is re-playing.]
Obviously, two hours of live Elvis makes a sweet treat for any fan. We got lots of interesting Elvis, including some less frequent selections. "Clubland" was a fun thing to hear.
I was particularly pleased when an audience Applause-O-Meter passed up "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror" which is great, but common- in favor of "Beyond Belief," which I don't think I've seen him play live. I've heard the classic Imperial Bedroom recording probably literally 1,000 times, but it's never sounded quite like this. This ranks as my favorite performance of the night.
The title song "North" from his now three day old new album came, naturally, as a request from a Canadian fan. In truth, it was probably the least interesting song of the set.
Ol' Burt Bacharach called in to request "All This Useless Beauty," which he said was one of his favorite Elvis songs- even though it was not one that he was involved with. It was good to see this infrequently performed song- and the Bacharach endorsement carries considerable weight- but I still don't see this as a major Elvis classic.
This overall performance probably rates actually slightly lower than any of the several times I've seen him in person, particularly his October 2002 appearance in Indianapolis. He was perhaps just a bit more ragged, or sloppy here. It's all good, though.
Indeed, this is easily excusable as spontaneity and freshness. He played somewhat different songs than what he was playing live last year. He pulled out stuff that he hasn't played in a while at the drop of a hat. Plus, he plays things somewhat different from the record. He's really involved with the songs in the now, rather than merely running through exact replicas of the studio recordings in rote recitations. If it comes out a bit rough around the edges, that's absolutely cool with me.
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