Elvis Costello & Nick Lowe
Magaw Hall
Northwestern University
Evanston, Il.
April 22, 1989

Lineage: AKG Mikes (unknown model) => Sony D5 => master cassette => Maxell XLII => Pioneer stand-alone CD burner => CDR => EAC => Audigy Audio Cleaning Lab * => Export to WAV => FLAC front end (level 8)

Nick Lowe set (27:20):
(1) When I Write The Book About My Luck (start cut) (4:39)
(2) Cruel To Be Kind (3:12)
(3) Heart (3:14)
(4) When The Heart Don't Care (3:32)
(5) So It Goes (4:43)
(6) I Want To Build A Jumbo Ark (3:56)
(7) I Knew The Bride (4:02)

Elvis Costello set:
Disc 1 (76:14):
(1) Intro Music (0:10)
(2) Accidents Will Happen (2:48)
(3) Blue Chair (4:09)
(4) Deep Dark Truthful Mirror (5:10)
(5) Watching The Detectives (5:24)
(6) New Amsterdam (4:47) =>
(7) You've Got To Hide Your Love ... (1:06) =>
(8) New Amsterdam (reprise) (3:48)
(9) God's Comic (12:04)
(10) Veronica (6:20)
(11) Mystery Dance (1:43)
(12) Pads, Paws, and Claws (2:57) =>
(13) Leave My Kitten Alone (4:21)
(14) Radio Sweetheart (4:00) =>
(15) Jackie Wilson Said (2:24)
(16) Hidden Charms (3:19)
(17) Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (3:39)
(18) Your Latest Fling (2:59) *
(19) Indoor Fireworks (4:53) *

Disc 2 (43:05):
(1) Peace, Love, and Understanding (3:54) *
(2) Taped Music/Banter (6:59)
(3) Tramp The Dirt Down (5:46)
(4) Taped Music/Banter (2:22)
(5) Coal Train Robberies (3:15)
(6) Taped Music/Banter (2:34)
(7) Big Light (4:45)
(8) Taped Music/Banter (1:32)
(9) Alison (3:44)
(10) Taped Music/Banter (2:31)
(11) Pump It Up (5:38)

* w/Nick Lowe

No artwork; sorry. Fingerprints are in a separate text file.

Comments:
Last show of the Elvis Costello spring 1989 "Spike" college tour. Nick Lowe opened for Elvis; both were acoustic sets. The first song of Lowe's set is cut because the taper arrived late.

The performance is really fun, by both artists. Lowe joins Costello for the last few songs of the main set. The encore has the appearance of being all-request -- Elvis selected random audience members to join him onstage and choose a "deadly sin" (I think they were hearts tacked on a bulletin board), after which he bantered with the audience member and allowed them to "choose" a song (he actually showed them a list of a half-dozen songs to pick from). A little long on tape, but at the show I remember it being extremely entertaining. Elvis's set is really intense.

The recording is great. I remember the taper telling me he was in the front few rows of the floor on the side, and his equipment was great. The only flaws -- very minor -- are occasional phase shifting (the taper turned away from audience members talking around him, and as a result the volume of the music drops for a few moments) and a small cut near the end of "God's Comic" (he didn't know the song and chose the wrong time to flip the tape). The Lowe set is a little rougher-sounding due to a talkative crowd, but still very good.

I broke the discs so that if you choose you can put the Nick Lowe set on the end of the Elvis show, and the whole thing will fit on 2 CDs.

Note (May 2012): I think the "intro music" on track 1 is commercially available (it wouldn't have caused the torrent to be banned in 2005, but it will now), so I removed all but a few seconds of it for the 2012 reseed.
This show was the first time I'd seen Elvis, and it made me a fan for life.