Elvis Costello Sang a Love Letter to Texas at Majestic Theatre

When the lights went down at Majestic Theatre on Friday night, the voice of a midcentury newsreel barker poured out across the historic venue’s immaculate acoustics. It was audio lifted from the trailer for a 1965 black-and-white feature film, Monster A-Go-Go (widely regarded by cinephiles as one of the worst movies of all time).

“Never in your life have you seen such a combination of happy, sad, good, bad, rock-em sock-em action!” the announcement rang out, “Monster A-Go-Go! Monster A-Go-Go! Monster A-Go-Go!”

Indeed it would be, with songs of cheeky joy, nimble misanthropy and gorgeous heartbreak alike. It was a fitting introduction for Elvis Costello & The Imposters to take the stage.

After 47 years of writing, recording and performing, we’re all quite lucky that one of the most influential songwriters of all time is still touring so prolifically. As he starts 2024 with this Southern-states outing (mysteriously dubbed The 7-0-7 Tour), there’s no new material to promote — Elvis Costello and his longtime backing band seem to be out on the road simply for the love of the game, having just as much fun on stage as the fans are in the audience.

For almost a half-century now, Costello has proven himself to be a master of genre-play while still maintaining his singular style of sophisticated guitar-pop and unparalleled knack for crafting melodies in the context of everything from classical music to jazz standards and beyond. But in the past two decades, he’s leaned heavily into elements of blues, finger-pickin’ country music and traditional rockabilly — more akin to 1950s Sun Records compositions (like that other Elvis) than the '80s new wave commercial hits with which he’s so widely associated. So, naturally, he was thrilled to be in Texas.
Throughout the night, he regaled a sold-out crowd with his fondest memories of North Texas in storytelling vignettes between songs that almost evoked the audiobook narration of his nearly-700-page autobiography, published in 2015, a veritable treasure trove of personal anecdotes from one of the most brilliant musical minds of our time.

“My first time in Dallas went by in a flash. I ended up somewhere I shouldn’t have been at three in the morning. I had car keys in my pocket, but I didn’t drive. I had house keys in my pocket that didn’t belong to me,” he riffed, “And they were playing all that new wave music on the radio. I fuckin' hate that music!”

Sounds pretty true to the Dallas nightlife experience, then and now. It was a delightfully tongue-in-cheek nod to the eternal lament of all musicians: the struggle of stylistic categorization and its perceptual limitations.

In particular, Costello conveyed a deep fondness for the city of Fort Worth. He spoke endearingly of recording there with T-Bone Burnett and jazz bassist Ray Brown. As the story went, Brown once started off a take in one of those sessions with the warning, “OK, gentlemen, nobody play any ideas.”

“That’s still the greatest thing anyone’s ever said to me while making an album,” the bespectacled frontman gushed.

Another major point of pride he referenced on stage was the lineup addition of Texas’ own Charlie Sexton, standing in as guest guitarist with The Imposters on this tour. During a bluesy fill on the 1977 powerpop jaunt, “Waiting for the End of the World,” Sexton’s high-level soloing slithered through and wrapped around the form of Costello’s first-album cut with incredible precision. But he was a largely underutilized presence throughout the whole of the set. It would have been great to see more of his technical prowess interpolated into fan favorites.

The highlight of the night came when some lovely soul in the standing-room orchestra pit called out for “Beyond Belief” (recently featured on the critically revered second season of FX’s The Bear), which seemed to amuse Costello. A few songs later, he sat with a beautiful custom Spanish acoustic guitar in his lap and led The Imposters through a flawlessly improvised country-Western spin on the highly underrated cut from the 1982 album Imperial Bedroom. It was literally a revelation, with Elvis so earnestly excited to ask the audience,

“Did you like that? That was the first time we’ve ever played that song like this!”

They did. They very much liked that. There couldn’t have possibly been a warm body in the room without goosebumps. It was one of those rare one-in-a-million-chance live music moments for which you immediately feel grateful to be in the room.

Not all of these Southern blues-steeped arrangements flowed so seamlessly, though, as a slowed and twangy version of “Mystery Dance” came across way too subdued for an otherwise ferocious romp about the maddening sexual frustrations of youth.

Though the night was largely steeped in Southern influences, Elvis Costello does not mess around when it comes to the hits. Faithful versions of “Radio, Radio,” “Pump It Up,” “Alison,” “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea” and “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding” brought the house down. “Clubland” dripped with bossa nova sensuality as pianist Steve Neive tickled the keys and Costello spent the outro crooning The Specials' definitive doom-reggae hit, “Ghost Town.”

Diehard fans in the crowd had the pleasure of witnessing the raucous deep cut from This Year’s Model, “Lipstick Vogue,” but unfortunately this wasn’t a tight performance from The Imposters’ rhythm section. That’s probably easy to forgive, considering it has by far the fastest tempo and some of the wildest time changes in Costello’s entire repertoire. Because it is definitely not 1978 anymore, and every band with the privilege of a long lifespan has at least one album version from their younger days that just gets too fast to play live as the years go on.

Elvis Costello has made 32 studio albums (and counting) in his career and each of varies in a unique way. In turn, every one of his concerts is unique. With a catalog of songs that large, you’re not going to hear everything you hope to and you’re not going to see the same set twice. What ultimately made this show special was Texas — specifically, North Central Texas. It was an intentional tribute to us, to the brilliant music that comes from here and the true spirit of this place we call home.