Elvis Costello and The Imposters, with big-ass song wheel, at Beacon Theatre, NYC.

God, I love him.

At one point, he did “Alison” into Jimi Hendrix’s “Wind Cries Mary” and, somewhere in a parallel universe, my 14 year old self came and then exploded. Hearing one high school idol cover another…it’s just too much.

(Elvis is still an idol, and while I will always appreciate Jimi, the allure of the whole sexy/exotic-guitar-god-who-died-young-and-fucked-up thing wears off as one grows older.)

Otherwise, the show was very good, but the wheel was sort of a double-edged sword. For those who don’t know, Elvis last travelled with this wheel, a spinning song book of hits, covers, and lesser known cuts, in the 80’s (or maybe it was ’90 or so when he retired it).

Anyway, it was cool that people were plucked from the audience to spin the wheel (and really, who doesn’t love a good wheel-spinning?), but the show was less of a concert and more of a, well, show. There was a lot of talking and EC playing to the crowd and interacting with audience members brought on stage to spin, and this interrupted the flow of the concert – both because of the breaks between songs but also because someone might hit on a faster tempo song, then the next person might hit on a slower tempo song, etc. Whenever he broke from playing to get another person to spin or to talk to the crowd, I found myself wishing he’d just keep on rocking out already. My personal highlight was “Black and White World,” which I had never heard in the dozen-plus times I’ve seen him. And of course, Alison -> Wind Cries Mary which then ended in Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Shitballs.

Still, since it was an Elvis Costello show, I’d give it a 40 out of 10. He’s the best.