|
You wouldn't expect a rock personality who has never before toured the United States and has only had an album released in the U.S. for six weeks to create the furor that Elvis Costello and the Attractions did on Sunday night at the Oxford Ale House in New Haven.
Costello, a 22-year-old rock 'n' roller from England, provided an awesome display of material before a sellout crowd of enthusiastic fans bordering on hysteria.
There is a powerful force behind Costello's music which is driven into the audience by Elvis' fierce delivery. As Costello spits out his lyrics, he stares at the audience with an icy stare which sends a chill up the spine of the ardent following.
Costello opened with a few tunes from first his Columbia album My Aim Is True; "Welcome to the Working Week," "The Angels Want to Wear My Red Shoes," "Sneaky Feelings" and "Less Than Zero."
One of Costello's most powerful rock 'n' roll numbers of the night was "Blame It on Cain," where Costello says, "If you need somebody to burn, Don't blame it on me. Blame it on Cain."
The Attractions, Pete Thomas on drums, Bruce Thomas on bass, and Steve Nasson on keyboards, perform with the necessary drive to enhance Costello's tunes.
Costello displayed some new material during his hour-long set.
Highlights of the new material were "Sunday's Best," "Wrap It Up," "You Belong to Me," "Radio, Radio," and "The Beat."
The frantic pace and lyrics like "I don't want to be your lover, I just want to be your victim" kept the crowd screaming during "The Beat."
During "Radio, Radio," the crowd joined the Attractions and whispered "Listen, listen, listen" at the end of each stanza of this new tune.
Another odd phenomena is that the crowd seemed to know the lyrics of all of the songs from Costello's first album. They joined in quite readily when Elvis broke into the tune "Watching the Detectives," a chilling tune complete with twanging guitar licks which sounded straight out of a British spy movie.
Costello was a computer programmer in England before turning to rock 'n' roll. He doesn't like to talk about his past and makes this fact evident in the tune "Less Than Zero," when he says, "Let's talk about the future now, we'll put the past away."
Costello finished his exciting set with "Waiting for the End of the World," after which the crowd chanted, "Elvis, Elvis, Elvis," hoping for an encore which was not forthcoming.
| 
