"With every one of those late night stations, playing songs bringing tears to my eyes"
My recap of the Elvis Costello and the Imposters' concert in Tallahassee, Florida on Jan. 10, 2024.
Living in Tallahassee, Florida means that you don’t get much in the way of good concerts happening locally. We’ll usually get one or two groups passing through that I’m interested in going to see. One of those occasions was this past Wednesday when Elvis Costello and the Imposters (Steve Nieve, Pete Thomas, and Davey Faragher) with Charlie Sexton played at Ruby Diamond Hall at Florida State University.
Costello is up there in the pantheon of my favorite musicians. He’s also someone who possesses one of the most expansive catalogues in popular music. You have the classic post-punk/new wave of the late 1970s and 1980s. The work with Burt Bacharach, some of the more rootsy/Americana work in the 21st century. There’s a lot of Costello out there and a lot for him to draw on for a set list.
The venue, Ruby Diamond Hall, was a little peculiar. Costello playing in this theater might have made sense if it was just him in an intimate, acoustic setting—just him and a guitar. But he was playing with the Imposters! It was ostensibly a rock and roll show. Many of the songs called for dancing/movement and were better suited to be listened to while standing with a beer in your hand rather than seated and hushed.
Though the venue was a bit strange, it did not diminish from the great show Costello and company put on. This was not just a going-to-a-show-to-pay-homage kind of thing. This was a strong performance and evidence that Costello, almost 47 years after his debut album was released, is still vital and vibrant, not just a legacy act.
One part of the show that stood out was Costello’s stage banter. Though I know he’s a very witty man (I mean, one need not look further than his lyrics to see that he’s got a remarkably sharp sense of humor), I didn’t think he’d be a performer who would engage so much with the audience. Perhaps it’s because I associate Costello with that post-punk coolness when that’s not who he is (or strictly was even in that late 70s/early 80s stretch), but his interplay with the audience really popped out.
My favorite songs from the show were two songs from the 1980s with which he did a fascinating bit of reinventing/retooling. Costello and the Imposters turned “Everyday I Write the Book” into a soul song, while “Clubland” was imbued with a cool Latin feel. They’re both good songs in Costello’s catalogue, but are a bit hamstrung by their more dated production values. These performances strip them of those more dated aspects, which leads to songs that feel contemporary decades after their initial composition. This performance of “Everyday I Write The Book” from the Spectacular Spinning Songbook tour kind of gets across the vibe/feeling of the performance from the Tallahassee show.
His performances of “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” “Watching the Detectives,” “Alison,” “Almost Blue,” and “What’s So Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding” were also major highlights. There were also more songs off My Aim is True (four) than I was really expecting, while nothing off of Armed Forces or Get Happy!! It’s something that speaks to the voluminous nature of Costello’s repertoire—you could’ve put together a setlist not using any of the songs he played at this Tallahassee show and it would still be incredible. The hit songs, like “Radio, Radio,” “Pump It Up” and “(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea",” were all stellar while a song like “Farewell, OK” off of The Boy Named If felt right at home.
It’s a testament to Costello, this kind of encyclopedia of popular music, that he could put on this genre-spanning concert more than 40 years into his musical career, a performance that felt both so alive but also so reflective of the history and what came before.