By Jennifer Carroll

On Wednesday night, November 21, I found myself lucky enough to be sitting in the eighth row at The Stifel Theatre getting ready to see an artist I never thought I would have the chance to cross off of my concert list, Elvis Costello.

There was no opener and Elvis Costello and The Imposters took the stage at approximately 8:15 pm and dove into a 26 song set list.

On the keyboards was Steve Nieve, Davy Faragher on bass/backing vocals and Pete Thomas on drums, who plays like a machine. Everyone looked like they were really into it and having fun along with the two backup singers and dancers who were wearing really pretty black sparkly dresses with red boots. Elvis told several stories about the songs before they started playing them. I learned that he wrote a song called ‘Burnt Sugar Is So Bitter’ with Carole King. There were many awesome guitar solos and he even broke out some nice dance moves! They did a cover of ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’ by The Animals, which was amazing. My favorite thing he said during the show was “Sometimes you have to put people up on pedestals to see what they really look like.” The lighting throughout the show was very rich and colorful, it was perfect.

The highlight of the show was when they performed ‘Deep Dark Truthful Mirror’, the 14th song into the set list. There was a sound difficulty with the microphone towards the end of the song, but he continued singing without missing a beat. Once he realized the audience could not hear, he then set down a stool and grabbed his acoustic guitar and sang Radio, Radio. I felt that the entire band handled the situation beautifully and professionally. The show even ended with some people dancing in the aisles!

I am so lucky that I got to see this show. If they ever come to visit St. Louis again, I would definitely love to see them again.

Photos by Jen Gray | Lo Fi Eye