It's appropriate that in the middle of his Saturday night show at Summerfest's BMO Harris Pavilion, Elvis Costello referenced his first performance in Milwaukee, saying he first appeared here in 1977 and didn't realize that we had summer here until 1983.
Costello, who with his band The Imposters played to what appeared to be a roughly half-full seating area at the venue, opened with a string of old favorites, making the show basically a walk down memory lane with just a few more recent tunes peppered into the hour-long set and an encore than ran nearly another half-hour.
Kicking off with the high-spirited "Lipstick Vogue," and following with a cover of Nick Lowe's "Heart of the City," Mystery Dance ," "Radio Radio" and "Everyday I Write the Book," Costello kept the performance uptempo and intense throughout.
Long-time fans were thrilled to get a set that featured mostly favorites – he played "High Fidelity," "Clubland," "Watching the Detectives," among others, and in the encore heaped it on with "Less Than Zero," "Chelsea" and "Pump It Up," before letting loose with another Lowe cover, this time one for which Costello is more famous, "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding."
The performance reprised an Elvis and the Imposters gig a few years earlier on the same site, on the temporary Classic Rock Stage which was replaced by the BMO.
The sound was crystal clear and the sightlines great in the new venue. It was just a shame that more folks didn't take advantage of the beautiful night to hear a high-octane rock and roll gig.
Local boy Willy Porter opened the show with a solo set to start the night.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
