Elvis Costello and the Attractions - Live at the el Mocambo, March 6th, 1978

When Elvis Costello burst onto the music scene in the late 70's, I was immediately hooked on his terrific songwriting and caustic lyrics. But when he joined forces with the unbelievably talented Attractions for his second album, he became a force to be reckoned with and a fantastic live act. I saw him several times with this band and was always blown away by their power and style. At this point Elvis was a decent rhythm guitarist, but that was about it, so I kinda miss some of the leads from the first album, but otherwise there could be no complaints about this band in a live setting.

This CD documents Elvis' first Canadian outing and he was heralded as the next big thing so with hype proceeding him, the hip and the hopeful waited - according to the liner notes - up to 10 hours in order to experience the best of the "new wave" from England. I don't know if I could have done that even when I was a youngster, but this proves that it was worth the wait! Of course, since it was a bar, everyone waited by imbibing and at least one drunken lout shouts incoherently throughout this disc (variations of "eeeee!", "yee-hah" and other nonsense) though it is not enough to detract from the main "attraction".

The set list is terrific, of course, as the 2nd album had just been released. "Mystery Dance", "Waiting for the End of the World", "Welcome to the Working Week", "Less Than Zero" - this one with a number of lyrical changes, making me wonder if the record label was instructing him to be less controversial - "The Beat" (showing off the amazing rhythm section of Bruce and Pete Thomas, who are stellar throughout and along with Steve Naive on keyboards formed by far the best band that Elvis ever had), "Lip Service", "I Don't Want to go to Chelsea", "Little Triggers", a hard-rockin' "Radio, Radio", a wildly-driven "Lipstick Vogue", again showing the incredible power of Bruce and Pete and their sense of dynamics and melody, "Watching the Detectives", giving Naive a chance to shine, "Miracle Man" (not quite as frantic as on the Live Stiffs record, but still great), a spirited "You Belong to Me" and - what a finale! - "Pump It Up".

Absolutely excellent from start to finish! A must-have for any Costello fan!