Last night Wonder Boy and I checked out Elvis Costello. He’s not on my 100 List but he should have been. (I’m not adding him now because that would be cheating but I will be expanding the list by adding more artists I’d like to see.) I don’t know tons by Costello, but what I do know I like. And what I saw live in concert at the Taft Theater in Cincinnati, I also liked. The man is an entertainer!
For The Revolver Tour, the theme was “The Return of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook” and Costello played it up perfectly. On stage there was a hug Wheel-of-Fortune-style wheel. On every triangle within the wheel was one song. Concert guests were selected to come up and spin the wheel. After they selected their song, they got to stay on stage while Costello performed. People could either sit at a bar set up on stage or dance in a go-go cage. Yep, there was a go-go cage on stage. Awesome.
Wonder Boy and I had pretty sweet seats for the show. We were in the second row of the balcony almost dead center. At one point, Costello went out into the crowd with a wireless mic and we lost site of him but were still impressed. I’ve seen a few artists go out into the crowd, most memorably Lenny Kravitz, and I always think it’s a cool move. Well, cooler than Kravitz going into the crowd (did I mention he wasn’t wearing a shirt?) was when Costello showed up in the balcony. He sang his way up a flight of stairs in the Taft Theater and walked all over the place. I was maybe six feet away from the man!
The show ended, I thought, with a lot of bravado and it was pretty perfect. But then there was another encore. And then another. Four of them all told. He was fabulous. And while I’ll always wish I could have gotten to see Elvis as in Elvis, seeing Elvis Costello was pretty much awesome.
This post originally appeared on Kate’s Point of View. © Kate. All rights reserved.
Grand Duke Bob
My daughter, the go go dancing Duchess of Lexington and myself, Grand Duke “Bob” of Lexington had a he’ll of a night at the Taft. I have been a fan since I saw him at Bogarts in 1978. To get to go up on stage and spin the wheel doesn’t get any better. And my daughter actually got paid for dancing- sweet! I had met him at the Milestone Hotel in London two years ago and he told the Duchess he remembered me but may have just been nice. He played some of my favorite songs from Strict Time to Girls Talk and EC and the Imposters were complete gentlemen with my daughter backstage. Pete Thomas seemed to be fascinated by the Duchess’ background as she grew up on a horse farm. Incredible night, once in a lifetime for both of us.