The Musical Box

Time was that an Elvis Costello concert was defined by a shattering pop melody, a cynical turn of a lyric and, quite often, a magnetic sneer on the part of the host performer.

Last night at the Louisville Palace, though, a far less pensive but no less artistically restless Costello made a raised eyebrow, a sideways grin and lyrics to new songs that embraced everything from drunken weddings to fatherhood the cornerstones of his performance.

There were plenty of ruminative rockers from the postpunk days - a cranky but giddy Lipstick Vogue, a fitfully groove-savvy Watching the Detectives, and a solo acoustic encore of Alison - to please those in the crowd still tied to Costello’s past. The singer even had 2/3 of his Attractions band (keyboardist Steve Nieve and drummer Pete Thomas) on hand with a comparatively new bassist (Davey Faragher, who joined in 2001 when the unit was officially re-dubbed The Imposters) playing with ageless drive and invention.

But this was a night where new music was also placed front and center. Over the course of a two-and-a-quarter hour set, Costello sneaked in all 12 songs from his new Momofuku album, which hit stores in its CD format on Tuesday. It was in these tunes that Costello’s most crafty profiles emerged.

Stella Hurt opened the evening with Nieve taking charge on carnival like organ sprints and hand-modulated theremin rings while Costello and the rest of the Imposters stirred a pot of purposely jagged and voluminous rhythm - either that, or the sound mix took a good song or two to settle in for the night.

By Harry Worth, the surprises began. Faragher added vocal harmonies that suggested the great multi-tracked Costello vocal recordings of the late ‘70s, while Costello himself guided the tune’s generally tipsy wedding day mood through light bossa nova turns. My Three Sons, performed during a trilogy of encores, was Harry Worth’s straightfaced, more autobiographically inclined alter ego.

But the Momofuku tune destined for classic status, at least in terms of its performance potential, was Flutter and Wow, a more modestly sentimental slice of wide eyed pop that compacted the epic song structures Costello explored with Burt Bacharach on 1998’s Painted From Memory into a lean combo frame.

The evening also steered into areas of repertoire other than the very old and the very new. Beyond Belief and a beautifully, patiently paced Man Out of Time served as bold re-affirmations that the album they hailed from, 1982’s Imperial Bedroom, still stands as Costello’s unrivaled masterpiece.

Similarly reflective were the three tunes pulled from 2004’s The Delivery Man highlighted by Country Darkness, a broken waltz full of regal words, riveting soul and stark jabs of some very nocturnal electric piano by Nieve.

The best was appropriately served during the final encore. The two song medley blended Costello’s best Momofuku tune, the grand kiss-off groove-a-thon Go Away, and his still anthemic reading of Nick Lowe’s still topical (What’s So Funny About) Peace, Love and Understanding.

The two tunes encapsulated every magical element of Costello’s industrious pop design. Luckily, there were another 26 songs over the two preceding hours where those machinations took form and ran wild.