Toronto Review - Thu, July 3, 2003
Elvis pumps it up - Superb artist presents old songs in brand new ways - By
JANE STEVENSON
Elvis Costello may have a classic songbook that stretches back 26 years but
he wanted to make one thing perfectly clear last night at the Hummingbird
Centre: "We don't do requests." This clarification came after some audience
members had clumsily spent the first part of his two-hour concert shouting
out song titles during some of the show's more delicate pauses despite the
fact that the British singer-songwriter was doing just fine without their
guidance.
In fact, last night was probably the most vocally strong I've ever heard
Costello -- or maybe it was just that I could hear him so well in the
intimate and acoustically perfect surroundings -- as he expertly crooned his
way through both more obscure songs and familiar hits, the latter for the
most part dramatically rearranged.
Thus you had a strangely slowed down version of the normally blistering Pump
It Up , a more playful and sped-up rendition of Everyday I Write The Book
and a downright jazzy, finger-snapping run-through of Watching The
Detectives.
In between, Costello and The Imposters -- Attractions keyboardist Steve
Nieve and drummer Pete Thomas, along with new bassist Davey Faragher
(Cracker) -- never failed to entertain.
COSTELLO SEDUCED THE CROWD
It was more like a complete and utter seduction really as Costello --
dressed in head-to-toe black save for red cowboy boots -- coerced the crowd
into singalongs on tunes ranging from Tart -- from 2002's When I Was Cruel -
- to the Beatles' You Really Got A Hold On Me.
Costello was equally at his intoxicating best on both pretty and caustic pop
ballads like My Dark Life, In The Darkest Place, So Like Candy, Toledo and
Indoor Fireworks, and the more uptempo Dust 2, I Can't Stand Up (For Falling
Down) and I Hope You're Happy Now.
Since Costello played here a little over a year ago at the Molson
Amphitheatre, he's become engaged to Canadian jazz-pop pianist Diana Krall
and he'll follow up When I Was Cruel with North, an album said to be
influenced by her since it features 11 piano-based ballads.
All I care about is that he returns to perform again, and soon, because,
frankly, there are few showmen like him as he so capably demonstrated during
the show-ending (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding.
9:18:44 AM 
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