Elvis Costello
Merriam Theater
Philadelphia, PA
November 10, 2013
CA-11s/battery box/Edirol R-09HR/WAV/xACT/FLAC
1. intro
2. Jack Of All Parades
3. Mouth Almighty
4. Either Side Of The Same Town
5. Motel Matches
6. Mr. Feathers
7. Rocking Horse Road
8. I Hope You're Happy Now
9. Home Truth
10. Accidents Will Happen
11. Indoor Fireworks
12. Walkin' My Baby Back Home
13. Toledo
14. Blue Chair
15. Green Shirt
16. Heart-Shaped Bruise
17. Watching The Detectives
18. After The Fall
19. Cinco Minutos Con Vos
20. High Fidelity
21. Alison
22. break
23. Just A Memory
24. Almost Blue
25. The Flirting Kind
26. I Want You
27. break
28. A Slow Drag With Josephine
29. Jimmie Standing In The Rain
30. Radio Soul
31. Tripwire/(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding?
32. outro
I was lucky enough to attend five shows on this tour -- this was the first one I saw, and it might have been the best. Sure, Philadelphia lacked some of the "I can't believe he's playing this!" dramatics of the later setlists, and I don't think the sound in the Merriam is quite as good as it was at the Capitol in Port Chester, say. But this night felt the most assured, the steadiest, the most impressively unified, like the songs were adding up to something more than the sum of their parts -- that one-two-three run early on of a stately "Rocking Horse Road," a subdued and almost Dylanesque rearrangement of "I Hope You're Happy Now," and a harrowing "Home Truth" is about as perfect a stretch as EC achieved on this entire magnificent tour, while any show that finds him digging out both "After The Fall" and "Just A Memory" is one for the ages. Not a single moment of this show -- except possibly "The Flirting Kind," a treat for the hardcores but a trifle to most -- felt like he was showing off or indulging in songbook archaeology. This was nothing more, or less, than one of the world's great songwriters demonstrating that he's also one of the world's great entertainers. Give it a listen, and you'll see -- it was utter perfection.
I've heard tell there's another recording of this night out there, so I was holding off sharing this until I could see if the other capture is better -- I�m hoping the other taper was in a less muddy spot in the room than I was, or at least suffered from fewer latecomers arguing with ushers nearby during "Jack Of All Parades" and "Mouth Almighty." But that tape still hasn�t surfaced, and this one is solid enough, edging into excellence for the keyboard numbers at the end, when the sound man seemed to tweak some knob that improved things significantly. If you collected this tour -- and I hope I�m not being too pushy when I say you should have -- then you'll like this.
I've said this before on this site, and I'll say it again -- these Costello solo tours are the last few years� absolute highlights in whatever-the-hell-genre-we're-calling-this. Rock? Classic rock? Singer/songwriter? Heck, "Walkin' My Baby Back Home" is a standard, and the songs from "Wise Up Ghost" are swaggering, mean, even dangerous, like they came out of some seedy bar in an old black-and-white movie. Nobody else out there is making music quite like this, and nobody's presenting it this way, placing old songs and new ones alike in beautiful juxtaposition, as EC does here with "Cinco Minutos Con Vos" and "High Fidelity." This is great, great stuff -- and we should support this guy.
I�m dusting this one off in hopes it inspires some tapers in St. Paul tonight, or Milwaukee tomorrow, or Chicago or Ann Arbor or Toronto or Cleveland; Louisville or Atlanta or the Tennessee heartland in the weeks to come; in New York certainly and in Wilmington hopefully and if we get really lucky then in Concord and Montreal too. Record these shows, and share liberally -- it�s a gift you can give to the ages!
Disseminate this recording freely, use it to get the word out, and convert or remaster or post it any way and anywhere you please, but tell all your friends until you're blue in the face that Elvis Costello is incredible, and plunk down a few bucks at the merch table next time you see him, by way of saying thanks for all the tremendous music he's given us. And in the meantime, enjoy this tape!