Set lists: Elvis Costello & The Imposters, Carlene Carter

On 23 April, I had the pleasure of seeing Elvis Costello & The Imposters. As an additional treat, the opening act was the lovely Carlene Carter.

Carter was great fun. She still has a great voice and she seemed to be in fine spirit despite recent rough times, making jokes for the audience, narrating stories, and just being generally lively. Perhaps her best line of the night was when she claimed to finally be "putting the try back in country." She performed a mix of some of her 90s material and songs from her recent album, Stronger. As a cool treat, she also threw in "Cry," from her 1980 album Musical Shapes. She also demonstrated the importance of her family by not only mentioning them and dedicating songs to them, but also by singing some Carter material, including The Carter Family's "My Dixie Darling" and the June Carter-penned "Ring of Fire." It was a good set.

Costello and band were also very good. Costello, too, did a mix of classic and current material. It was great to see him live, and I had a pretty decent view of him and the band from my seat, so that was cool. I won't say this is the best concert I've ever seen, but it was definitely solid, and I would recommend catching a Costello live show. He and the band sounded quite good to my ears, and obviously the man has a vast catalogue of awesome songs. One song he performed that came as a very pleasant surprise is "Indoor Fireworks." The only other thing I can really say is that, through the uptempos, midtempos, down-tempos... through the wild abandon on some of the numbers and the potential energy of others... through it all, it was quite an experience.

Carter's set:
1. Every Little Thing
2. Bring Love
3. To Change Your Heart
4. The Bitter End
5. Me and the Wildwood Rose
6. Ring of Fire
7. My Dixie Darling
8. It Takes One to Know Me
9. Why Be Blue
10. Cry
11. Stronger

Costello's set:
1. Stella Hurt
2. (I Don't Want to Go To) Chelsea
3. Clown Strike
4. Wonder Woman
5. Either Side of the Same Town
6. Every Day I Write the Book
7. Song With Rose (a Rosanne Cash co-write)
8. Accidents Will Happen
9. Harry Worth
10. Drum and Bone
11. Flutter and Wow
12. Femme Fatale (the Velvet Underground song)
13. Pardon Me Madam, My Name Is Eve
14. The River in Reverse
15. American Gangster Time (which was dedicated to Jay-Z and Beyoncé)
16. Beyond Belief
17. You Belong to Me
18. The Impostor
19. Radio Radio
Encore
20. My Three Sons
21. Indoor Fireworks
22. Man Out of Time
Encore
23. No Hiding Place
24. Turpentine
25. Go Away
Encore
26. Mr. Feathers
27. Alison
28. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding

"Peace, Love, and Understanding" made an awesome closer, but I have to say, Nick Lowe's acoustic rendition was so amazing that I'd have to give him the nod there. Still, I'm glad I did indeed get to see both perform it within the span of a few nights.

As you can see, he played a substantial set, and I am grateful for that!

And lest there be any doubt, let me say here that the Momofuku material is excellent. I wasn't inclined to buy the vinyl edition, but I'm definitely interested in the forthcoming CD release and would recommend anyone check it out in whichever edition is more desirable.