Elvis Costello
★★★
Place and date: Palau de la Música (5/IX/2023)
The British singer, songwriter and guitarist Elvis Costello is a great pop icon, with an extensive career that he spent alongside keyboardist Steve Nieve, his partner since the distant days of punk and new wave. It was an ideal night to let yourself be carried away by a songbook of bells, performed by an author who at 69 years old was jovial and talkative, telling anecdotes and seeking connection with the tall audience, who received him with warm applause of which he made a joke. : “But we haven't played yet!”
It's a shame that it was the protagonist himself who boycotted himself, from the initial When I was cruel no. 2, with out-of-tune sounds, especially in the higher tones, which he often displays. However, these imbalances did not cause any complaints from the respectable person, enthralled with a repertoire that shone especially in the most intimate and ballad tones, as he acted as a piano bar crooner, clinging to a vintage-looking standing microphone.
Particularly emotional were the replays of the old Shot with His Own Gun, the beautiful ballad Almost Blue that Chet Baker covered in its day, A Face in the Crowd designed for a musical, the seminal Alison or She, which was an accomplished tribute to Charles Aznavour. Not to mention the tear-jerking intensity of The birds will still be singing, which closes the neoclassical album The Juliet letters, or the memorable Shipbuilding, made famous by Robert Wyatt.
The Falklands War also served to remind us of Cinco Minutes with You, a bilingual song recorded with The Roots that shows a groove side, with programmed rhythms and synthesizer. In this electric facet, the treatment of Watching the detectives would shine, between dub and lounge. The rhythm tone
