Elvis Costello @ Taste of MN
Posted on July 4th, 2009 – 11:26 PMBy Jon Bream
Elvis Costello always seems to be more aware of his environment than your average rock star. At Taste of Minnesota on Saturday, he knew he was in St. Paul (not Minneapolis) and he was fully aware of the makeover at Taste of Minnesota.
“I bet you were disappointed we weren’t a heavy metal group,” he said before playing his encore. “Sorry. We’re all wearing leather shorts underneath.”
Looking noticeably thinner, the Rock Hall of Famer with the oversized glasses and long sideburns was the lone non-hard rocker to headline this year’s revamped Taste (Bret Michaels is Sunday, Staind and Judas Priest preceded Costello.) To be honest, Elvis was less intense than usual as he and the Imposters played 95 minutes of mostly familiar songs: Pump It Up, Every Day I Write the Book, Accidents Will Happen, Chelsea, Man Out of Time, Clubland, Monkey to Man, Watching the Detectives.
He had some fun by throwing Van Morrison’s “Jackie Wilson Said” into “Radio Sweetheart” and taking the encore of “Alison” into “Tracks of My Tears,” “Tears of a Clown” and “Suspicious Minds.” And, of course, he rocked out on “Peace Love and Understanding” to close the show.
The highlight, though, was the silly ”Sulphur to Sugarcane,” from his new country-tinged album, “Secret, Profane & Sugarcane.” Costello introduced it as being about a no-good guy running for office against Sarah Palin. He said, “We like to call this ‘You Can Call Me Al.’ ” It was a colorful travelogue in which he rhymes Ypsilanti and panties and managed to ad lib a line about St. Paul.
Not unexpectedly, Elvis had issues with the Taste set up. With more than half of the “gold circle” reserved seats empty, he kept urging standing concertgoers to climb the fence to get to the seats in front of the stage. The Angry Old Elvis would have led the charge, this time he just led the band.
16 Responses to "Elvis Costello @ Taste of MN"
Nice review Mr. Bream. Glad you brought up the empty Gold Circle seats! Also, glad you mentioned Sulphur to Sugarcane. It was certainly the highlight as well as The Beat, Chelsea, Monkey to Man and of course (What’s so Funny)…glad I attended!
Sounds like it was fun.
Shame on you guys for not giving a full review to The Priest though. My gosh, the show was freaky-amazing and the last time I saw them was about 25 years ago. I remembered them being good back then but not GOOD!
Whitesnake very surprisingly stunk though. The only part that pumped life into their set was when he let the kids, his other band members, showcase their stuff in their solos. Normally that is when I go to sleep but that is what lifted up their performance a bit.
BF
We went specifically to see Martin Zellar who always puts on a good show. We would like to know if he was the one who suggested that everyone be allowed to sit in the “gold circle” seats w/o having to pay $50/person. It probably looked ridiculous from the stage to see no one in the seats. Maybe the organizers should rethink the “gold circle” set up for next year and just have the VIP tent off to the one side of the stage.
I thought Elvis did a good job of tailoring the playlist for the audience - heavy on the old hits, but I agree, his best effort was the title song to the new album. I was a little disappointed in the crowd, but perhaps a bunch of half interested parties gabbing away during the show is to be expected for a free concert. I agree also with the other reviewers and the empty Gold Circle seats. I think it was a bit disconcerting to Elvis…
Didn’t get to see Elvis either — I’ve seen him several times with the original Attractions but it’s been about 25 years.
I too am wondering why the Strib didn’t review Judas Priest or Whitesnake. For that show, the gold circle seats were packed. Whitesnake seemed to be trying too hard; in the first 10 minutes of the set, David Coverdale dropped the F-bomb about a dozen times. He (and the stage set) looked good, but he clearly was overcompensating for being in terrible voice. Entirely underwhelming. Priest was typically bombastic, Rob Halford sounded great, and they sounded as good as when I saw them at the old Met Center in the early ’80s. Well worth the $10 I paid for two bottles of pop…
I enjoyed Elvis, but the Taste set up made it seem like I was spying on the concert vs. attending. The Gold Circle idea is a complete insult to the spirit of the Taste. I am amazed Elvis was not more dispirited by the set up. Can you imagine being on stage and looking out empty seats surrounded by a few thousand people peering over a fence. Please kill off the Gold Circle for 2010.
I went to Priest and Costello. Priest ruled. Whitesnake stunk, Costello was lame in comparison to what he’s delivered in the past. I’ve seen Priest 3 times since they reunited with Halford, and I actually thought this was the best. I’ve seen Costello about 6 times since he’s had the Imposters behind him, and this was the worst. Enjoyable would be the right word, but I get the feeling that in the past the word would have illicited a fight from Costello.
The Taste needs to keep the Gold Circle seating, but be able to adjust the barriers the in the morning for each crowd. They should have removed about half of it for Elvis Costello. As a huge fan of both artists, I couldn’t help to think about the negative comment made about the hard rock shows at the taste : What does it say that the critics darling, the one that was to save the musical sensibilities of the Taste’s weekend couldn’t sell more than 100 tickets? After all of the build up the Tribune gave these shows, they should have reviewed all of them, and released attendance numbers. Judas Priest deserved some retribution, since they filled the place on a gloomy evening and rocked it!
So…..how should the people who run Taste of Minnesota make enough money to put on the show for future years.
You complain about the Gold Circle (I agree, to a point. There should be an area for people who don’t want to stand for an entire show without being trampled). You complain about the “cover charge”. You’d complain if they put up a tent and put the main acts under that tent for a cover charge.
And you’d complain about the quality of the music acts if they had to be paid based on vendor rentals.
So, what would YOU do?
We have gone at least 15 times, not this year. I had a bad feeling about the gold circle setup and looks like I was right. Were there hordes of hobos? That’s what turned us off last year.
GOOD IDEA: keep the gold circle but adjust the size of the area in relation to ticket sales. It was NOT a free concert. It cost $10 a head. That’s not free so don’t cut the organizers slack that it was “free”.
OK, so it wasn’t QUITE “free” - you had to buy $10 worth of tickets - big deal. I like the option of paying for a seat - either adjust the price downward somewhat to fill those seats, or adjust the number of seats available to coincide with sales.
Costello put on a great show. And he certainly gave the Security people heart attacks when he (several times) asked people to come and fill up the seats.
Definitely need to have the Gold Circle seats altered. I bet if they were $25, it would have been full. I for one would have payed that extra to sit up close and get some decent pictures.
Whitesnake smelled good in fact, Coverdale hitting those highs. Elvis Costello is for fags that still need to feel they belong someplace in rock ‘n’ roll.
To give the new Taste organizers a little credit, they actually saved/offered those Gold Circle seats free to members of the military for the 4th of July. There just are not many military folks into Elvis, I guess (or not enough of them knew about the offer). But overall the Gold Circle seats were a major mess, which the Taste team admits and is pledging to alter by next year.
Brian Burroughs, you’re either a crudely funny and very ironic guy or a complete moron.
How was the Bret Michaels show?
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