Elvis & Steve, Stockholm (Sweden), September 11, 2023

Pretty self-explanatory
Post Reply
sweetest punch
Posts: 5961
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 5:49 am
Location: Belgium

Elvis & Steve, Stockholm (Sweden), September 11, 2023

Post by sweetest punch »

Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
User avatar
krm
Posts: 1141
Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2007 6:10 am
Location: Sweden Skåne

Re: Elvis & Steve, Stockholm (Sweden), September 11, 2023

Post by krm »

I´ll be there!
sweetest punch
Posts: 5961
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 5:49 am
Location: Belgium

Re: Elvis & Steve, Stockholm (Sweden), September 11, 2023

Post by sweetest punch »

https://elviscostello.info/wiki/index.p ... _Stockholm

Setlist

01. Jack Of All Parades
02. Shot With His Own Gun
03. Accidents Will Happen
04. Waiting For The End Of The World
05. Mistook Me For A Friend
06. Like Licorice On Your Tongue
07. Tart
08. Veronica
09. Toledo
10. No Wonder
11. Almost Blue
12. Watching The Detectives
13. Talking In The Dark
14. I Do (Zula's Song)
15. I Still Have That Other Girl
16. She
17. When I Was Cruel No. 2
18. Shipbuilding
19. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?
20. Alison
21. The Whirlwind
Encore 1
22. I Want You - including I Believe To My Soul
Last edited by sweetest punch on Tue Sep 12, 2023 2:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
sweetest punch
Posts: 5961
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 5:49 am
Location: Belgium

Re: Elvis & Steve, Stockholm (Sweden), September 11, 2023

Post by sweetest punch »

Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
sweetest punch
Posts: 5961
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 5:49 am
Location: Belgium

Re: Elvis & Steve, Stockholm (Sweden), September 11, 2023

Post by sweetest punch »

Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
User avatar
Man out of Time
Posts: 1827
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2007 8:15 am
Location: just off the coast of Europe
Contact:

Re: Elvis & Steve, Stockholm (Sweden), September 11, 2023

Post by Man out of Time »

Review (in French) by Guillaume Delcourt published in Popnews on September 19, 2023.

" Elvis Costello & Steve Nieve, Filadelfia Kyrkan, Stockholm, 11 septembre 2023
2023-09-11 Stockholm photo 01.jpeg
2023-09-11 Stockholm photo 01.jpeg (65.13 KiB) Viewed 12860 times
Le roi des Imposters a perdu de sa force d’Attractions mais livre malgré tout un show intime avec l’un de ses plus vieux complices, Steve Nieve aux claviers. Respect infini.

Pestons d’abord sur la salle, l’impersonnelle Filadelfia Kyrka, plus propre aux messes évangélistes qu’aux shows de nos idoles, et sur le public, inévitable horde de cheveux gris et de chemises colorées, mais finalement bien en phase avec Elvis et Steve Nieve, improbable duo de pimps scorsesiens, costume gris métal brillant et chaussures extrêmement pointues pour Nieve, costume de souteneur 70’s et breloques sur chemise ouverte pour Costello, qui maquille son look de JLG en celui de De Niro. On sait que Costello aime les masques et joue avec le kitsch, le mauvais goût, c’est même son élégance.

C’est donc fagoté comme l’as de pique qu’il entre en scène avec un “Jack Of All Parades” de bonne tenue musicale même si on craint d’emblée pour la voix, plus cassée que jamais, toujours menaçant de s’écraser sur des ruptures, disons-le, plus de son âge mais qui sont sa marque de fabrique. C’est donc à un numéro d’équilibriste que Costello nous invite, à l’image de son set comme toujours entre rock, ambiance Rat Pack et expérimentations : emprunts plus ou moins avoués à tout le spectre de la musique populaire.

Il savonne bien çà et là mais, dans l’ensemble, il tient au mieux la route en grand pro, ne se ménage pas en prises de risque et c’est quand même la classe, américaine, de continuer à se produire quand on pourrait rester peinard sur ses lauriers. C’est même assez généreux (et frôle l’inconscience) de gigoter et de faire le Jacques pendant deux heures sur scène.

C’est pour cette rencontre rituelle en tout cas qu’on est là, peut-être tout autant que pour entendre ces titres qu’on connaît par cœur. Costello est clairement en perte de vitesse par rapport à sa tournée de 2017, où il faisait le show, tout feu tout flamme, avec moult décors pour revisiter sa carrière et son autobiographie. Ce soir, c’est installation minimale de piano et clavier pour l’un et ensemble de guitares et trio de micros pour l’autre. Sans oublier les rasades de tisane à se jeter dans le cornet entre les titres.

On est en tout cas dans le plaisir du jeu, de la rencontre, des retrouvailles. Nieve suit son Costello au quart de poil, l’œil toujours sur son comparse, essaie des trucs (y compris des lunettes genre Elton John), pas toujours des mieux vus (le clavier sourd et lourd en guise de basse sur le bijou “(Waiting for the) End of the World”), mais rend le spectacle un peu moins prévisible que l’inévitable setlist calibrée. Et ça marche. Que ce soit avec le clavier un peu cymbalum sur “Jack of All Parades” ou le mélodica sur “Watching the Detectives” ou encore le mini-accordéon sur « I Want You ». On ne s’étonnera pas des accents de musique romantique sur “Shot With Îis Own Gun”, qui transforme un Costello-Sinatra en Wanderer par la magie de Steve Nieve sur les traces Hammerklavier de Beethoven. D’ailleurs, il martèlera dur pendant tout le concert pour se mettre au diapason d’un Costello qui joue et chante décidément trop fort et pousse au dépassement de toutes les limites du raisonnable. Splendeurs et misères de la musique amplifiée…

Délices du spectacle, les digressions de Costello. Florilège :

“It’s been a long time since we last saw but the real question is… where have you been?”

ou parlant de Steve Nieve et de leur longue collaboration de 45 ans :

“In 1978, he was just a boy and I was… barely a man.”

“We played this [“Accidents Will Happen”, NDLR] in this arrangement for the first time at the Hollywood High in 1978 and I know… that many of you were there”

Ou, avant « Mistook Me for a Friend », parlant de sa beat box qu’il n’utilisera que pour faire des reprises de Suicide et évoquant sa tournée aux Etats-Unis, sa découverte de la télé 24h/24 et de sa musique :

“The jukebox played constantly new wave music. And I HATED that (I only wanted to play rock’n’roll)… (long silence)… And some were by me !”

(ce qui rappelle, n’est-ce pas étrange ?, un peu les paroles de Franco Battiato dans “Centro di gravità permanente” : « non sopporto i cori russi, la musica finto rock, la new wave italiana, il free jazz punk italiana »)

Ou encore, avant de s’asseoir après une bonne demi-heure de concert

“I don’t sit because I’m tired. I’m sitting down… so I could take a good look… in your wicked eyes…”

“Now Steve Nieve is changing glasses. We are as much as show business as we can.”

“Now it’s the part of the show where we have to make a decision. Sing a song with a girl’s name in the title. And I have a couple of those. Or we could sing a song about… confectionary [les confiseries, NDLR]”.

Au passage, il écornera un peu la légende paternelle (glorifiée avec humour lors de la tournée de 2017), évoquant après “Like Licorice on Your Tongue” l’habileté paternelle pour les langues étrangères :

“That’s a good song ant that’s a very rude song too. I wrote that song 20 years ago as an… erotic poem… about fruit. (…)

I don’t speak Spanish because I already struggle with English all the time. (…) My father actually spoke fluent Spanish. When he was old enough to kind of lose a bit of that decorum that sometimes old gentlemen have and loose the sense of values of the things that they say. And.. I know, I know… (rires du public). And my friend in Andalucia asked my father where he studied. And my father said : in… bed. (…). Apparently in a bed of love. And my mother… did not speak a word of Spanish…”

Parfois, il se paume un peu dans ses punchlines, abandonne en cours celle sur le songwriting comme time-traveling pour se rattraper in fine aux branches et nous révéler les mensonges sur l’écriture autofictionnelle :

“Johnny Cash wrote ‘I shot a man in Reno’ and that’s not true because he sang the song every night and never get caught.”

Il sera dit qu’on pardonnera beaucoup à Costello ce soir-là… On pense à JLG mais aussi à Michel Serrault, cabotin jusqu’au bout. Malgré tout.

Oui, la guitare est moins folle, le jeu sur les micros un feu forcé mais au détour d’une chanson, on retrouve un son de guitare prodigieux (“Tart”), peut-être un peu plus relâché sur cette tournée parce que pouvant s’appuyer sur le partenaire de (presque) toujours. La voix vrille mais se rattrape toujours, seule ou à l’aide d’un micro complaisant.

Et puis, il y a des moments fabuleux à la hauteur de la légende, vertigineuse. “Watching the Detectives”, déconstruite comme il se doit (son “Courage des oiseaux” si on peut dire), option dub cette fois-ci, avec Steve Nieve au mélodica. Le piano parfait de Steve Nieve sur “Shipbuilding” ou “Almost Blue”, fait pour l’ambiance fin de parcours Las Vegas. Ou encore l’amère “When I Was Cruel” et ses paroles chipées/détournées à Abba (« Watch that girl, Watch that scene, Taking the dancing queen ») qui font mouche ici, vous pensez bien (comme l’allusion à sa collaboration avec la soprano suédoise Anne Sofie Van Otter avec “No Wonder”), et entraînent Nieve à parodier la musique du quatuor local sans sortir de la chanson de Costello.

Sans oublier “Toledo”, écrite avec Burt Bacharach, hommage aux collaborations stratosphériques (il y a six ans c’était Allen Toussaint) « qui a eu la gentillesse d’accepter de bien vouloir écrire avec moi », introduite avec moult anecdotes sur le motif easy-brésilien de la chanson en boucle à la guitare acoustique.

Une “Alison” sur le fil vocal et avec participation du public. Et si vous n’avez pas eu l’occasion de faire les chœurs avec Costello, sur une des plus belles chansons du monde, vous ne savez pas ce qu’est le bonheur. Our aim is true en sorte.

Citons encore l’introduction de “The Whirlwind”, Rat Pack non binaire sur la falaise :

« I wrote this song about a girl who come from a faraway town and she come for a new career and hoping… that nobody… will discover… the secrecy… that she carry… behind her eyes. And I was that woman.”

Sans parler de la guitare pliable, au manche escamotable qui disparaît sous nos yeux avant le rappel. « On joue sans jour de repos. On voyage avec tout notre matériel et en cas de problème… il faut avoir des solutions. The show must go on. »

Et, enfin, “I Want You”, s’étendant sur plus de 7mn, touchant le silence avec Steve Nieve, accompagnant mot à mot Costello (il le faut bien : il saute quelques lignes…) dans sa traversée du désert sentimental. Instant suspendu et dernières notes arrachées de haut vol.

C’était sportif, et très touchant surtout de la part d’un vieux monsieur sur la fin de sa carrière et bien décidé à la finir sur scène (on ne reprend pas Aznavour pour rien), ne trichant pas, ou alors en le montrant ostensiblement (le vrai-faux débat entre eux pour savoir si oui ou non il joueraient un rappel… annoncé deux titres avant), drôle et classe malgré tout dans ses fanfreluches. Grand monsieur. Chapeau (bleu) bas. On nous y reprendra certainement mais faudrait avoir les Attractions, ou les Imposters pour le moins, pour finir en beauté.

Image finale terrible aussi d’un show sans merch (on se souvient des CD et biographies signés en 2017) et du tour bus qui attend dehors. The show must go on, qu’il disait."

Or in "English" via Google Translate
Elvis Costello & Steve Nieve, Filadelfia Kyrkan, Stockholm, 11 September 2023

"The king of Imposters has lost his strength of Attractions but still delivers an intimate show with one of his oldest accomplices, Steve Nieve on keyboards. Infinite respect.

Let us first curse the room, the impersonal Filadelfia Kyrka, more suited to evangelist masses than to the shows of our idols, and to the public, an inevitable horde of gray hair and colorful shirts, but ultimately very much in tune with Elvis and Steve Nieve, improbable duo of Scorsesian pimps, shiny metal gray suit and extremely pointy shoes for Nieve, 70's pimp costume and charms on an open shirt for Costello, who disguises his JLG (Jean- Luc Godard) look as that of De Niro. We know that Costello likes masks and plays with kitsch, bad taste, it's even his elegance.

It is therefore as frumpy as the ace of spades that he enters the scene with a “Jack Of All Parades” of good musical quality even if we immediately fear for the voice, more broken than ever, always threatening to collapse. crushing on breakups, let's say it, more of his age but which are his trademark. It is therefore a balancing act that Costello invites us to do, like his set as always between rock, Rat Pack atmosphere and experiments: more or less admitted borrowings from the entire spectrum of popular music.

He soaps well here and there but, overall, he holds his own as a great professional, does not spare himself in taking risks and it is still classy, American, to continue to perform when we could stay relaxed on your laurels. It’s even quite generous (and borders on unconsciousness) to fidget and act like Jacques for two hours on stage.

It is for this ritual meeting in any case that we are here, perhaps just as much as to hear these titles that we know by heart. Costello is clearly losing momentum compared to his 2017 tour, where he put on a show, all fired up, with many settings to revisit his career and his autobiography. This evening, it’s a minimal installation of piano and keyboard for one and a set of guitars and a trio of microphones for the other. Without forgetting the shots of herbal tea to throw into the cone between the titles.

In any case, we are enjoying the pleasure of the game, of meeting people, of reunions. Nieve follows his half-haired Costello, his eye always on his sidekick, tries things (including Elton John-style glasses), not always the best seen (the muffled and heavy keyboard as bass on the jewel “( Waiting for the) End of the World”), but makes the show a little less predictable than the inevitable calibrated setlist. And it works. Whether with the cimbalom-like keyboard on “Jack of All Parades” or the melodica on “Watching the Detectives” or the mini-accordion on “I Want You”. We will not be surprised by the accents of romantic music on “Shot With Is Own Gun”, which transforms a Costello-Sinatra into a Wanderer by the magic of Steve Nieve in the footsteps of Beethoven's Hammerklavier. Moreover, he will hammer hard throughout the concert to get in tune with Costello who plays and sings decidedly too loud and pushes all reasonable limits to be exceeded. The splendors and miseries of amplified music…

Delights of the show, Costello's digressions. Anthology:

“It’s been a long time since we last saw but the real question is… where have you been?”

or talking about Steve Nieve and their long 45-year collaboration:

“In 1978, he was just a boy and I was…barely a man.”

“We played this [“Accidents Will Happen”, Editor’s note] in this arrangement for the first time at the Hollywood High in 1978 and I know… that many of you were there”

Or, before “Mistook Me for a Friend”, talking about his beat box which he will only use to cover Suicide and talking about his tour in the United States, his discovery of 24-hour TV and his music :

“The jukebox played constantly new wave music. And I HATED that (I only wanted to play rock’n’roll)… (long silence)… And some were by me!”

(which reminds us, isn't it strange?, a bit of the words of Franco Battiato in “Centro di gravità permanent”: “non sopporto i cori russi, la musica finto rock, la new wave italiana, il free jazz punk Italiana")

Or, before sitting down after a good half hour of concert

“I don’t sit because I’m tired. I’m sitting down… so I could take a good look… in your wicked eyes…”

“Now Steve Nieve is changing glasses. We are as much as show business as we can.”

“Now it’s the part of the show where we have to make a decision. Sing a song with a girl’s name in the title. And I have a couple of those. Or we could sing a song about… confectionary [les confiseries, NDLR]”.

Along the way, he will dent a little the paternal legend (glorified with humor during the 2017 tour), evoking after “Like Licorice on Your Tongue” the paternal ability for foreign languages:

“That’s a good song and that’s a very rude song too. I wrote that song 20 years ago"

I don’t speak Spanish because I already struggle with English all the time. (…) My father actually spoke fluent Spanish. When he was old enough to kind of lose a bit of that decorum that sometimes old gentlemen have and loose the sense of values of the things that they say. And.. I know, I know… (audience laughter). And my friend in Andalucia asked my father where he studied. And my father said: in… bed. (…). Apparently in a bed of love. And my mother… did not speak a word of Spanish…”

Sometimes he gets a little stuck in his punchlines, abandoning the one on songwriting as time-traveling in class to ultimately catch up with the branches and reveal to us the lies about autofictional writing:

“Johnny Cash wrote ‘I shot a man in Reno’ and that’s not true because he sings the song every night and never gets caught.”

It will be said that we will forgive Costello a lot that evening... We think of JLG but also of Michel Serrault, an idiot to the end. Nevertheless.

Yes, the guitar is less crazy, the playing on the microphones a forced fire but at the turn of a song, we find a prodigious guitar sound (“Tart”), perhaps a little more relaxed on this tour because it can rely on your partner (almost) always. The voice twists but always catches up, alone or with the help of a complacent microphone.

And then, there are fabulous moments that live up to the dizzying legend. “Watching the Detectives”, deconstructed as it should be (his “Courage of the birds” so to speak), dub option this time, with Steve Nieve on melodica. Steve Nieve's perfect piano on “Shipbuilding” or “Almost Blue”, made for the end-of-course Las Vegas atmosphere. Or the bitter “When I Was Cruel” and its lyrics stolen/diverted from Abba (“Watch that girl, Watch that scene, Taking the dancing queen”) which hit the mark here, you think (like the allusion to his collaboration with Swedish soprano Anne Sofie Van Otter with “No Wonder”), and lead Nieve to parody the music of the local quartet without leaving Costello’s song.

Without forgetting “Toledo”, written with Burt Bacharach, a tribute to stratospheric collaborations (six years ago it was Allen Toussaint) “who was kind enough to agree to write with me”, introduced with many anecdotes on the Easy-Brazilian motif of the song looped on acoustic guitar.

An “Alison” on the vocal line and with audience participation. And if you haven't had the opportunity to sing backing vocals with Costello, on one of the most beautiful songs in the world, you don't know what happiness is. Our aim is true in a way.

Let us also quote the introduction to “The Whirlwind”, non-binary Rat Pack on the cliff:

“I wrote this song about a girl who comes from a faraway town and she comes for a new career and hoping… that nobody… will discover… the secrecy… that she carry… behind her eyes. And I was that woman.”

Not to mention the foldable guitar, with the retractable neck which disappears before our eyes before the encore. “We play without a day off. We travel with all our equipment and in the event of a problem… we must have solutions. The show must go on. »

And, finally, “I Want You”, extending over more than 7 minutes, touching on silence with Steve Nieve, accompanying Costello word for word (he has to: he skips a few lines…) in his crossing of the sentimental desert. Suspended moment and last notes torn off at a high level.

It was sporty, and very touching, especially coming from an old man at the end of his career and determined to finish it on stage (we don't bring Aznavour back for nothing), not cheating, or else by showing it ostensibly (the true-false debate between them to know whether or not they would play an encore… announced two titles before), funny and classy despite everything in its frills. Great Sir. Hat (blue) low. We will certainly be taken back but we would have to have the Attractions, or the Imposters at least, to finish in style.

Also terrible final image of a show without merch (we remember the CDs and biographies signed in 2017) and the tour bus waiting outside. The show must go on, he said."

MOOT
Post Reply