O/T Elvis Costello & The Imposters at Sheffield City Hall, Saturday 8th June 2013
Hello,
Seeing as how I was cycling 80 miles to get to see E.C. I was rather hoping that he would turn in a terrific performance in keeping with every other review that I've read of this continuation of the 'Revolver' tour that I saw and loved last year. Big change for 2013: this year's model is called 'The Spectacular Spinning Songbook'!
Right, I'll cut to the chase: this was a special show and for the life of me I cannot recall the set-list. What I do know is that the band floored us with a four or five songs right off the bat before Elvis got his first punter onstage to choose a tune. This was where the genius of the slightly random selection worked again...we got 'Shipbuilding' which was dedicated to Mr Wyatt for obvious reason.
The change in mood and tempo was extraordinary and by when the song ended you could tell how much it meant to Elvis to have delivered a real performance of it as he yelped off-mike and punched the air. Powerful stuff.
The band sounded terrific and were able to cope with anything thrown at them. Good job too considering the rather short-notice that they had for some of the numbers, hah-hah! Elvis was in fine voice and he seems to love playing the ringmaster/vaudeville character complete with top-hat and cane. Despite him saying that all the songs on the wheel were "@#$%& miserable" (with a smile) he made sure that we laughed a lot.
There's probably (read: definitely) a load of pertinent comment that I have omitted but I can't imagine anyone not loving those 2 1/2 hours. As the bloke behind me said to his other half,"...that was the best £40 that I've spent...ever!". He wasn't too far off the mark.
If you're gonna suffer these vids then try HD for a slightly-less ropey viewing experience!
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Cheers,
Simon.
and a bonus pic of a my arm as I huffed & puffed up the A57...
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2013-06-11 00:41 by SimonN.