11.25.2019
ELVIS COSTELLO EARNS FANS’ TRUST AT THE STATE
City Pages: Chad Werner: November 25th 2019
Sometimes you tour just to tour. That’s the ethos Elvis Costello and his Imposters brought to the State Theatre with their “JusTrust” show Saturday night. No new album to promote; the band simply is out there to play, and they simply ask the audience to trust them.
And Costello, the new wave survivor and tireless interpreter of all manner of chamber pop and torch music, has earned our trust.
Was it a greatest hits show? Well, yes… and also, no. Take a look at that setlist below. You know the words to most of those songs, but the arrangements might have thrown you for a loop. The show was an adventurous trip through Costello’s body of work, and a tantalizing, tiny sliver of a glimpse into what’s to come.
Opening to the strains of gospel music and testifying, Elvis strode onstage looking a bit like our own beloved Prince, or maybe more like Beck, with a sequined black jacket and a bad ass red hat tilted ever so slightly just right.