02.01.2024
And is there any rock drummer as feloniously underappreciated as Pete Thomas? All hail Pete!
Riverfront Times: Steve Leftridge: January 30th 2024. Photo By Ray Di Pietro
Elvis Costello Showed St. Louis Friday That He’s Earned His Legend Status
Oh, it’s so funny to be seeing them after so long, girl. Elvis Costello, keyboardist
Steve Nieve and drummer Pete Thomas: still together, still rocking,
still playing their brilliant catalog of songs that stretches back
nearly 50 years. What’s so funny about Pete, love songs and
understatement? The Factory offered all three as Costello and the
Imposters, including bassist Davey Faragher and special guest Charlie
Sexton on second guitar, hit Chesterfield on Friday night.
With a 23-song, two-and-a-half-hour set, Costello played a career-spanning
selection of tunes, and considering Costello’s relentless decades-long
prolificacy, any of his concerts must necessarily leave a thousand
winners from his catalog behind. Did I get the tunes I wanted? Well,
choosing my favorite Elvis Costello song is like identifying my favorite
atom of blood in my veins, but by playing nine tracks from his first
five albums, Costello was careful to provide plenty of crowd-pleasing
haymakers that a nostalgic crowd came to the Factory to hear.