Elvis Costello All sneering, snotty snark and pent-up Freudian sex-angst when he burst on the late-’70s scene with his Buddy Holly glasses, pigeon-toed aggro-stance and pencil-leg jeans, Elvis Costello shared punk’s fury but actually knew his way around a ballad and even what a bridge was. Back then he may have reveled in enemy-making (Google the unfortunate Ray Charles incident), but Costello has mellowed comfortably into his elder statesman role by remaining creatively restless. Of course not every Brodsky Quartet collab or Il Sogno is gonna be your cuppa, but at least he’s not tourin’ on the oldies… well, except for this tour, which features a 40-song roulette wheel of (mostly) early hits and a stage show custom-built for his Vegas years. $34.50. Belk Theatre. www.blumenthalarts.org.
This article appears in Jul 12-18, 2011.
