After shaky start at Iveagh Gardens, Elvis Costello finds his cowboy-booted feet

The opening stretch of Elvis Costello’s show at the Iveagh Gardens is pretty lacklustre. He launches straight into Pump It Up, but the sound is ironically quiet. Mystery Dance and Watching the Detectives follow, and throughout these first few numbers Costello appears, rather hauntingly, to be chewing gum. Not in a confrontational, Nina Simone kind of way, but in a way that makes you wonder if he wants to be there at all. “Good so many of you came to see the body,” he says, rather poignantly in on the joke about the lifelessness of his own gig. “We were going to call this tour The Early Songs of the Late Elvis Costello, but we thought some people might get the wrong idea.” It’s true that, at this point, the concert feels more like a tribute act, dutifully ticking through the classics, showcasing his brilliant lyricism and stylistic range. The band do everything required of with real professionalism, if not a great amount of excitement. Introducing Less Than Zero, about Oswald Mosley, Costello reflects that it’s been 49 years since he wrote it. “Back when I was working in an office, I thought, what do we need in a rock song today? A song about a filthy old fascist.” He comments that the song feels prescient (maybe, but it loses mystique to say it yourself) before adding that he should have played it on Independence Day, “but it’s a day late, just like everything these days.” His voice is patchy for much of the night. He mentions having picked up bronchitis in Brussels. If that’s the cost of still touring at 71, then it’s hard not to admire the determination. There is one curious moment before Everyday I Write the Book where it sounds as though a touch of autotune slips into the vocal. For a second it’s exciting. What if Costello used the unreliability of his vocals as part of the act? What if he experimented with the creative potential of autotune, as a lot of contemporary musicians are doing, and reinvented his discography? But the effect disappears as quickly as it arrived. Thankfully, the concert improves dramatically in its second half. Lovable lifts the mood, while a superb medley of A Good Year for the Roses and Suspicious Minds gets the crowd crooning. The evening’s standout guest is uilleann piper Seán McKeon, whose contributions to Little Palaces are beautiful, before delivering a genuinely virtuosic solo that earns the biggest cheer of the night so far. Costello finds his footing as the show goes on. His between-song stories are truly charming. Showing off his cowboy boots, he tells the crowd, “I bought them from the pampered son of an infamous New York slumlord. I paid in crypto.” Before Alison, he deadpans: “I dropped this song from my tour because the girls who liked me didn’t want to hear another woman’s name.” By the time he closes the two-hour set with (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding, he’s won the audience back.