Venue:
Harpa, Reykjavik
Date: 28/05/2023
Never look a gift horse in the mouth they say. Well Costello announced a one off gig in Reykjavik – his first visit to Iceland in 13 years. My son lives there so was an opportunity to visit him and get to see this country’s current best songwriter (open to debate but you are wrong). Iceland on the cheap – a rarity as anyone who has been there will know.
Anyway we rocked up at the magnificent Harpa in time to see a fantastic set by Nick Lowe (This country’s second best songwriter currently).His short set encompassed some of his best tunes ie. Long limbed girl, Lately I’ve let things slide but sadly no The beast in me. He was his usual affable, charming self and warmed us up nicely for what was to follow.
EC and SN bounded onto the stage at just after 9pm and launched straight into Accidents will happen followed by Shot with his own gun. Nieve was majestic and Costellos voice was in fine fettle except on Veronica where he seemed to struggle a little. Most of the songs were played fairly straight except for When I was Cruel no2 which was menacing and a lovely reworked Waiting for the End of the World with a great new Steve arrangement.
Best of all though was Watching the Detectives – reworked and greatly expanded on even the reworked version that he has been playing for the last couple of years. Sinister and brooding, the loops were fantastic and this is a direction I would like to see him explore further. A surprise was Olivers Army which I thought had been retired. The offending N word line had been removed and complete updated verse added. Still a powerful song.
Nick joined them for Indoor Fireworks and Peace love and understanding.
Then the absolute peach of a final encore – Alison – sung unamplified/no mic. The audience gasped and then joined in the song in a hushed choir – fantastic.
The audience:
Sensible grown ups with respect for the artist – as audiences should be. Except the twat next to me was asleep for half the gig. A lot of money to pay for a nap – twat.
It made me think..
lost track of number of times I have seen him and this was up there as one of his best. Steve Nieve is a genius – along with Pete Thomas he played with Elvis for close to 50 years. Bruce Thomas must have been some kind of idiot to ruin this friendship.
Great review, S.
Only found out that EC and SN (sadly sans NL) were playing in Dublin the night we met up for Eels back in March by which point the gig (at the awful NCH which sells tickets independently of TM so very little publicity) had sold out. More than offset by the fact that I’ll finally get to see Wilco a couple of nights before/after.
Envious of the whole trip, tbh – it’s been 30 years since I last visited Iceland.
@fitterstoke
They’ll never take back those well-dodgy fish fingers at this late date, f
Arf!
Surprised to hear Declan is singing well, many recent reports have said his voice is shot. “Best current songwriter”? Maybe 40 years ago.
Wilco did an Iceland thing too this year, 3 gigs with no songs repeated I believe, too pricey for me though
I love Wilco and will be seeing them in Brum in Seotember.
Costello did 20 gigs at Gramercy – min 20 songs each night with no repeats – in excess of 400 different songs.
Re his voice it is clear he has to take care of it- much drinking of water between songs and on Veronica he was off. However out of a 22 song set that wasn’t the worst that could have been and Alison in that hall unamplified was worth the entrance price alone.
What are the chances?
Mrs Steady and I had taken the half term opportunity to re-visit Iceland some 18 years after first visiting (when it was REALLY expensive.) and thought I’m not a huge fan of his later stuff (apart from Veronica )I was able to pop along to the gig as Mrs Steady was tired from the early morning flight.
A striking venue by the way, not here last time I visited. I agree with your review mostly @stevet though I did miss about half of it sadly when I dozed off.
I tittered.
God bless you @beezer
All my hilarious hard work hadn’t gone completely unnoticed.
‘kin hell Steve you sure get about.
I hope you are doing something about your carbon footprint which must bear more resemblance to a carbon stampede!
Elvis Costello? Didn’t he choke on his own arrogance? 💥😎💥
I’ve just read your review Stevie ‘This country’s best current songwriter’? Did you have some additives to your Hardfiskur? Hold on ‘this country’s’? You’re referring to Iceland, well that’s OK. That ‘twat’ next to you, you hadn’t been telling him about your beer bottle top collection to cause his narcolepsy?
@baron-harkonnr
You feckin eejit. ‘This country’ as written by me as a resident of this sceptered Isle.
We have a dearth of really good songwriters in this country at present – most of the best stuff coming from the other side of the pond. Would be interested to hear who you think would be up there who us still writing great songs.
Are we talking about greatest living UK songwriter or greatest current songwriter? If living then one has to consider people like Ray Davies, Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend, Van Morrison, Jagger-Richards, Thom Yorke, Mike Scott, Damon Albarn, Jarvis Cocker etc etc. Elvis is up there too, but I think his best days are behind him as is admittedly the case for most of the above.
Ray Davies was up there but obviously not now. McCartney ditto
Never considered Townsend a good writer. Jagger- Richards were masters. Thom Yorke heads a great band but songwriter? Nah. Scott still great, Damon Albarn? Not sure. Cocker yes can agree.
I don’t think any of them have written anything as good as the songs on Hello Clockface, Look Now and the Boy named if. Costello has had a barren period but I think his last 3 albums are very good indeed
Ray Davies was up there but obviously not now. McCartney ditto
Never considered Townsend a good writer. Jagger- Richards were masters. Thom Yorke heads a great band but songwriter? Nah. Scott still great, Damon Albarn? Not sure. Cocker yes can agree.
I don’t think any of them have written anything as good as the songs on Hello Clockface, Look Now and the Boy named if. Costello has had a barren period but I think his last 3 albums are very good indeed
Never considered Townsend a good writer FFS. Those towering singles in the sixties, the imperious seventies that spawned Tommy, Who’s Next and Quadrophenia and you dont rate him.
Pfffft
Tommy is complete crap as far as I am concerned.
Quadraphenia not much better. Who’s next is brilliant so too the imperious singles but it is a very long time since he did anything any good.
Can I suggest Paul Weller. Remarkably consistent songwriter (OK, with some misses admittedly) but still a fine exponent of the craft
Good call
Yes can definitely agree with that. Would also say Baxter Dury who is at least as good as his old man.
@SteveT
Most of the best stuff coming from the other side of the grave more like
?
A play on SteveT’s “most of the good stuff is coming from the other side of the pond”
Are you hearing these songs via seances?
Only the Doris Stokes 12″ remixe on the 6FU label
Thanks for the review, Steve T.
I’ll be going to see EC and SN on 11 September. Looking forward to it even more now!
Nice review, but leave sleepy bloke alone. The man was probably very tired, gutted that he’d nodded off and missed the gig. Also Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding deserve a place on the best living songwriters list.
I’d be interested to hear the updated lyric of Oliver’s Army.