Three years ago Elvis Costello and Steve Nieve embarked on a simple guitar-piano tour that beautifully showcased the mature -- definitely not mellowed -- songs of punk's Agry Young Man. Last year, Costello hooked up with another pianist, Burt Bacharach. That pairing resulted in some gorgeous heartbreak songs wrapped in Bacharach's lush arrangements - though Costello often strained to reach some of the high-end vocals.
When Costello incorporated the two Wednesday night at the Wiltern Theatre, the result was absolutely stunning. Whether he's managed to retrain his voice or bring the Bacharach songs better into his range -- most likely, a little of both -- Costello was magnificent. It wasn't just the way he reached and held those dramatic notes (the audience borke into cheers three times on "What's Her Name Today?" for the vocals alone). At the Universal Amphitheatre last October, with Bacharach and a miniorchestra in tow, Costello seemed to be in awe of what he was doing. At the Wiltern on the first of two dates, Costello owned those songs. Unlike the Bacharach tour, with just Nieve behind him Costello had ample room to use his most expressive instrument, his voice. The sold-out crowd spellbound, he finished "This House Is Empty Now" by stepping away from the microphone and singing directly to the house.
The same sort of drama carried into Costello's own work. On the anti-war lament "Shipbuilding," he not only backed away from the microphone but finished with his back to it, letting the pickups in Nieve's piano carry his voice. The dark "I Want You" featured a moment of absolutely perfect silence. And the night ended with a true bit of theatre, with even the piano mikes off as he sang "Couldn't Call It Unexpected No. 4" to a crowd so afraid to break the spell that he had to coax it to sing along. Costello's Bacharach period (he's had many, ranging from country to blues) extended to a new song he and Nieve wrote, "You Lie Sweetly." And it seemed to seep in to things like the breathtaking "Almost Blue," dripping with regret. But that didn't preclude Costello, weilding acoustic guitar for much of the night, from doing any of his classic, still urgent material in just as genuine a fashion. "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" wound down to a Costello playing as quietly as he could.
He picked up an electric guitar for a poppy "Waiting for the End of the World" (melting into another Morrison's "Gloria") and, surprisingly, a whisper-soft accompaniment to Nieve on a grand "Alison." The final of three encores yielded the big payoff, a sterling rendition of another Bacharach tune, "God Give Me Strength."