<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#aaaaaa">Elvis Costello and the Imposters <br>Pearl Concert Theater at the Palms Casino <br>Las Vegas, NV <br>May 13, 2011 <br> <br>CA-11s/battery box/R-09HR/WAV/Audacity (for track splitting)/WAV/XACT/FLAC <br> <br>01 intro <br>02 I Hope You're Happy Now <br>03 Heart Of The City <br>04 Mystery Dance <br>05 Uncomplicated/Shotgun <br>06 Radio Radio <br>07 Everyday I Write The Book <br>08 Brilliant Mistake <br>09 Clown Strike <br>10 The Spell That You Cast <br>11 So Like Candy <br>12 Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood <br>13 Watching The Detectives <br>14 (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea <br>15 Beyond Belief <br>16 Clubland <br>17 Oliver's Army <br>18 break <br>19 A Slow Drag With Josephine <br>20 God's Comic <br>21 break <br>22 --iPad wheel spin-- <br>23 Green Shirt <br>24 (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes/Purple Rain <br>25 Alison/Tracks Of My Tears/No More Tearstained Makeup <br>26 Pump It Up <br>27 (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, & Understanding? <br>28 outro <br> <br>I couldn't resist catching the "Return of the Spinning Songbook" tour one more time, so I hoofed it out to Vegas. Wouldn't you know it, though -- the Wheel hadn't made the trek to this stop. EC claimed onstage it was due to some sort of Nevada Gaming Commission regulation, which actually had a bit of the ring of truth to it, though why the go-go booth was also left on the truck is a bit of a mystery. They did approximate the Wheel once, near the end of the show, hauling out an iPad for a few audience volunteers to "spin" using a wheel-ish app. Those volunteers remained onstage, gyrating drunkenly and eventually getting booted when they started giddily swigging from Elvis's onstage water bottle. Perhaps this gives an idea of the feel of the evening. <br> <br>On the plus side, we got roughly the same amount of music we would have gotten in a full Wheel show, with a lot less non-musical business between songs -- in fact, the entire set had the breakneck feel of the opening and closing stretches that have proved the most thrilling parts of the Wheel tour thus far. On the minus side, without the random spins there was no way "The Element Within Her" was going to get aired in Vegas -- let's hope someone's rolling tape when and if that one turns up once the Wheel returns. <br> <br>This is a solid recording, but you're gonna have to have some patience with clappers. How people think "clapping along" and "listening" are the same thing is a puzzle I'll never solve, but I'm starting to sound like an old man, so I'll shut up. Anyway, when my neighbors keep their hands still, it sounds pretty good. I bet you could even tinker with the sonics and brighten it up into something quite nice. <br> <br>Share, trade, convert -- do what you want, just be sure to buy Elvis's records, and go to his shows when he comes to your town. If you feel like bringing a tape recorder when you do the latter, far be it from me to discourage you. Enjoy!