Long-time collaborator Steve Nieve and the machine backgrounds brought dimensions to the great concert, but it would have been fine without jyttka.
Rock/jazz
Elvis Costello and Steve Nieve at Kulttuuritalo 9.9.
Elvis Costello the vocal technique may not be orthodox, let alone perfect, but the rough-voiced Brit belongs to the well-dressed great interpreters of rock, e.g. Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave’s alongside.
It didn’t hurt that Costello rhymed the words in such a way that you often couldn’t understand them at the Kulttuuritalo concert. The atmosphere was the most important and that was enough.
There were also enough styles. The star, who released his debut album in 1977, has also performed country music, jazz and even opera in his career.
There were also plenty of classic songs in a couple of hours.
At the beginning of the Kulttuuritalo concert, Costello tongue-in-cheek promised swagger and destruction. The first one was obtained at least in a way, in the interpretation tips. But the evening went elegantly rather than chaotically.
Elvis Costello remembered, to the audience’s delight, the recording of Hetty O’Hara Confidential in Suomenlinna 2020 during the concert.
Side by side Costello (born 1954) had a keyboard player Steve Snow (b. 1958), with whom he has worked almost since the beginning of his career.
Nieve was deservedly elevated to the title of the concert. Their collaboration brought more dimensions to the performance than in Costello’s solo concert at Finlandia Hall in 2017.
Most of the evening was spent simply. Nieve mostly played piano and Costello played guitars, usually acoustic but sometimes electric. Sometimes Costello just sang and left the accompaniment entirely to Nieve.
Keyboardist Steve Nieve, who worked with Elvis Costello for a long time, also played melodica at the concert.
Especially Hey Clockface – album (2020)’s songs had experimental machine music in the background. One of them was recorded in Suomenlinna Hetty O’Hara Confidential. Costello recalled the trip to Helsinki to the delight of the locals.
Hardly anyone uses backing vocals as elegantly as Costello and Nieve. Still, one can think about their necessity at a time when many big pop stars leave musicians out of tours and perform with only machines.
On the other hand, the title song of the said album Hey Clockface there is pure tin pan alley kapakka jazz both on the record and in concert. There is also a tango song on the same album I Do (Zula’s Song)which Costello performed because he knows that tango is a big deal in Finland.
For example, those two songs showed that Costello and Nieve can do excellently on their own without backgrounds.
Also Costello’s own and borrowed classics such as Accidents Will Happen (1979), Paul McCartney’s done with Veronica (1989), Charles Aznavour She (1999), Shipbuilding (1982) and Nick Lowe Peace, Love and Understanding (1978) work well when reduced.
Even the staunchest fans seemed to leave satisfied.
The music The autumn season has started nicely this weekend: on Friday the Malian Salif Keitan a great concert at the Savoy, on Saturday at Costello Kulttuuritalo and on Sunday the Grammy-winning Mexican Lilac Downs at the Savoy.
The operation of the Kulttuuritalo has been transferred to the large multinational ASM Global, which has promised renovations and reforms. Nothing has been noticed about them yet, except for the disappearance of the free drinking water points. Bottled water is now sold.
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