Review: ELVIS COSTELLO'S RADIO SOUL TOUR at Palace Theatre

Forget your 50 SHADES OF GRAY. On Oct. 10, Columbus got a chance to see yet another shade of a graying Elvis Costello.

Costello is a man who keeps reinventing himself. He changed his name from Declan McManus to Costello to Napoleon Dynamite to Little Hands of Concrete. He has changed his style of music more than he’s changed his moniker. There has been Country Elvis (touring with Emmylou Harris in 2005) and Bluegrass Elvis (teaming up with the Sugarcanes in 2009-10); Brass Elvis (performing with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band to promote SPIKE) and Jazz Elvis (The RIVER RUNS IN REVERSE tour with Allen Toussaint in 2006-07); Angry Elvis (WHEN I WAS CRUEL tour in 2002) and Mellow Elvis (when he and keyboardist Steve Nieve did a two-person tour in 1996 and 1999); and Stringed Elvis (traveling with the Brodsky Quartet in 1993) and Fully Orchestrated Elvis (playing with local symphonies in 2014). There was even Pat Sajak Elvis (touring with a gigantic roulette wheel filled with his songs in 1986 and 2011).

Costello unveiled yet another incarnation of himself Oct. 10 at the Palace Theatre (34 E. Broad Street in downtown Columbus): Sentimental Elvis. During his current Radio Soul tour, the punk poet laureate presented a sold-out crowd with a cache of songs from (mostly) his first 11 albums.

“Welcome to the last night of our tour … of Ohio,” Costello said, adding with a knowing wink. “This is going to be the last time you hear some of these songs in concert … ever.”

Perhaps the biggest problem with seeing Costello in concert is the man is too prolific. Since bursting onto the music scene in 1977, the cynical bespectacled singer has released 33 studio albums, more than his namesake Elvis Presley (24). In fact, he has put out more studio albums than Taylor Swift (12), Michael Jackson (10), the Police (five), and One Direction (five) combined. What that means is any time the man performs in concert, he’s going to overlook many fan favorites.

To combat that, Costello follows the path of over prolific artists like Dave Matthews, the Grateful Dead, and Bruce Springsteen by coming up with a different setlist every night. Costello and his backing band the Imposters featuring former Attractions Nieve on keyboards, and Pete Thomas (drums), as well as Davey Faragher (bass) and Charlie Sexton (guest guitarist) have seven tunes that reappear at all 15 stops on his current tour. Outside that skeleton of songs, the band offers different chestnuts at every show. The Oct. 10 show offered 10 different selections from its Royal Oak, Mich. Concert the night before.

Clad in a purple suit, a tan fedora and blue tinted glasses, Costello bounded on to the Palace Theatre’s stage to the sounds of Heaven 17’s “We Don’t Need This (Fascist Groove Thang)” and launched into “Mystery Dance,” a Presley soundalike song from his 1977 debut album MY AIM IS TRUE. For the Oct. 10 concert, the 2003 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee drew heavily from that debut, playing six tunes including staples “Alison” and “Watching the Detectives” as well as deeper dives into the album like  “Less Than Zero,” “(Angels Want to Wear My) Red Shoes,” and “Waiting for the End of the World.”

“We stopped playing ‘Alison’ during our second tour because it made the girls like us too much,” he joked.

In his 28-song blitz, Costello picked material from his fruitful period from 1977-1986. He rolled out his catalog of standards: “Radio, Radio” (the song that got him banned from SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE for 12 years) and “Pump It Up” from THIS YEAR’S MODEL (1978), “Clubland” from TRUST (1980), and “Every Day I Write the Book" from PUNCH THE CLOCK (1983).
Costello came up with an intriguing mix of crowd favorites, snarling his way through his harder edged material like “The Beat,” “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea,” and “High Fidelity” and displaying his softer side with ballads like “Almost Blue” and “Poisoned Rose.”

As often is the case, the singer trotted out his favorites, like covers of Sam and Dave’s “I Can’t Stand Up (For Falling Down),” Hank Williams’ “Why Don't You Love Me,” and The Miracles’ “The Tracks of My Tears” as well as dusting off some oddities and obscurities from his career like “Deportee” from GOODBYE CRUEL WORLD (1984), “A Face in the Crowd” from an unreleased musical he wrote in 2015, and the most recent offering of the night, “We Are All Cowards Now” from HEY CLOCKFACE (2020).

The Imposters are a tight band and Costello clearly has an affinity for playing with Nieve and Thomas from his old days with the Attractions as well as Faragher, who has been a part of the Imposters since 2001. Sexton, a Austin-based guitarist who has played with Bob Dylan, Don Henley, and Rolling Stone members Keith Richards and Ronnie Woods’ side projects, added a deeper, fuller sound to the Imposters.

While he is still a great performer and a masterful storyteller at age 71, Costello appeared to be struggling vocally on this tour. Columbus wasn’t just a rare off night. Reviews from his shows at San Diego, Portland, and Akron all made mention of his straining for notes he used to hit with ease.

 In his 1999 Costello & Nieve Tour, he told a crowd at Nautica Amphitheater in Cleveland that sometimes even a microphone gets in the way of a performance and closed his show out with a hymn delivery of “God Give Me Strength” without the benefit of a mic. His voice carried throughout the amphitheater.

It was disheartening to hear Costello reduced to a raspy growl and not being able to hit some of those notes. It was like seeing Roger Daltry and the Who during their last four “farewell” tours. You realize The King of America is not the spry singer he used to be, but even with his graying hair and gravelly sounding vocals, Costello is definitely worth seeing … regardless of what persona he chooses to take on.

Photo credit: DeEtte DeWeese