Elvis Costello, raw and mellow

At least this Elvis had come to Hong Kong. (He’s here two weeks ago.)

As a small fan of him, I could only afford to sit at the side of the stage and saw mostly his right side when he sang and played the guitar. And I wondered what it’s like for those sitting at the back of the stage and almost just saw his back throughout the night.

At first the sound did not come out very well, perhaps due to my abnormal position of the seat.

Yet, just one man and many guitars, he managed to pull off a good show, ending it with two long encores, which stretched the concert to two hours long. It surprised me that he could go on singing for such a long time. Indeed he just got more energetic as the concert went on. Naturally we could not but make our standing ovation throughout the concert hall to honour this veteran musician.

I must admit I haven’t listened to his music of recent decades, and I was not really impressed by his hit “She”, nor his slow-tempo and mellow songs. Actually, I’ve only got a collection album of his, and I prefer his earlier songs. I wished he had played some of my favourites, like “Accidents will happen”, “Chelsea”, “I Hope You’re Happy Now”, “Big Sister’s Clothes”. But at least I was consoled by hearing him sing oldies like “Watching the Detectives”, “Brilliant Mistakes” and “Alison”. I don’t particularly like “Shipbuilding” on the record, but it’s one of the most moving renditions of his in the concert.

There were light-hearted moments when he unplugged the guitar and approached the audience and sang. Without the amplifier, it sounded soft and serene, like hearing the singing of a street musician at night. And when he walked around and sang looking up at us at the side of the stage, I almost felt my lover-on-the-balcony moment. He just seemed to enjoy himself much, and so he had hummed a tune or two.

While I enjoyed the show and clapped my hands sincerely, at one point I couldn’t help imagine if only it were Roddy Frame singing here on the stage. On YouTube I had seen the video of him singing solo (also with an acoustic guitar) in a concert a few years ago. He had grown older, and his rendition was mellower and graceful, rather than becoming dull and affected as many singers do when they got old.

As for Elvis Costello, he still sounded so young when he played his old rock tunes. Not to mention the surprising ‘avant-garde’ moment when he sang in the dark and the audience was shot a blinding light during the last encore. Well, he isn’t really old.