09.28.2024
Elvis Costello and Steve Nieve at Vicar St review: an intimate trip through the past in the hands a vital storyteller
Siobhán Kane: Irish Times: September 28th 2024 Photo by Tom Honan
The 20-song show spans a career of over 50 years, 25 records, and a myriad of collaborations
“I’m hard to kill,” Declan Patrick McManus – aka Elvis Costello – wryly states, even though later in the evening, a rogue microphone lead threatens to. Tonight Costello and his long-time collaborator Steve Nieve are in spry, vital form on the first night of four dates at Vicar Street, Dublin. The stage design is set for a 1960s revue, with red curtains and soft lighting, which Costello inhabits with ease, going from mic to mic, speaking to a career that spans over 50 years, 25 records, and a myriad of collaborations.
Intimacy is the watchword, as he takes us on a journey that partly begins with “kidnapping” Steve Nieve from London’s Royal College of Music when he was 18, folding in anecdotes about Budd Schulberg, “Cold War topicality” and Burt Bacharach.