On the other hand, it wasn’t hard to see why Costello would make such a move, if he was indeed speaking the truth. With a setlist that stuck almost exclusively to his first 10 years as a recording musician, Costello was onstage performing songs he’s been playing for four decades or more.
Either way, it seemed like toying with the idea of retiring them was enough to light a fire under a performer who’s been wildly inconsistent in recent years, as Costello played with a sharpness that was lacking when he and his crack backing band the Imposters (augmented, then as immediately, by guitarist Charlie Sexton) were in Boston with Daryl Hall just over a year ago. “Radio Radio” remained a heedless whirlwind, “King Horse” was fierce and shaggy, and a Mose Allison-style take on “I Want You” was jazzy and smoky, winding the song’s creeping possessiveness and jealousy deceptively tight.
If anything was loose, it was Costello’s voice. Whether he was intentionally toying with the timing of songs he’s performed for ages, or the crisp rhythm of the vocals were simply getting away from him, there was notable slippage. It started with the verbosity of the opening song “Mystery Dance,” where Costello lagged behind the beat — but the same quality served the dub reggae backing of “Watching The Detectives” and the pointed almost-ballad “Little Triggers” well.
And if his voice proved a bit too ragged on “Brilliant Mistake,” then the same compromised, reedy baritone worked wonders on harrowing drops of “Stranger In The House” and on the Phil Spector-esque churn of “Poor Napoleon,” where the verses crept to the desperate, throaty howl of the chorus. And age has only amplified the strangled tremulousness that served the supper-club lament “Running Out Of Fools” all too well.
Perhaps it was possible to glean Costello’s exhaustion with his material in the way he added sharp nylon-string guitar to a Mexican-tinged Texas roadhouse version of “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes,” and how the band tore through “Lovers Walk” with psych organ and treble-maxed guitar. And it must be bittersweet playing songs like “Less Than Zero” – “the first single I ever put out, about a filthy old fascist,” he said – that have frustratingly refused to become quaint decades later.
But as he closed with a gloriously spirited rendition of “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, And Understanding,” Costello seemed to make peace with the first decade of his legacy, whether he’s done with it or not.
ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS (WITH CHARLIE SEXTON)
At MGM track Hall at Fenway, Monday
Marc Hirsh can be reached at officialmarc@gmail.com or on Bluesky @spacecitymarc.bsky.social
Here’s the setlist from Monday night, according to setlist.fm. Keep checking back as the list continues to update.
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