Elvis Costello & the Imposters Transform Tour with Horn Section

A Surprising Turn of Events

It’s not many tours that take a complete left turn from the style, content, and tone of how they started with just a few dates left on the itinerary before everyone heads home. That’s coasting time. Yet that’s exactly what happened with the final six shows on Elvis Costello & the Imposters’ “We’re All Going on a Summer Holiday Tour,” where no one who saw any of the first 17 gigs on the outing would have much recognized how things transpired in the final half-dozen.

The Transformative Presence of a Three-Man Horn Section

It was all due to the transformative presence of a three-man horn section, which the advertising had accurately promised would only be showing up for the tour coda. What was unexpected was just how thoroughly Costello retooled the whole show to build it around these new brass arrangements, discarding certain set staples and adding new ones to show just what different flavors could be realized with horns o’ plenty.

A Dream Show in New York City

As a result of this severe tinkering, Costello’s sold-out show Wednesday at New York City’s Beacon Theater (the first of two nights there) was one of the most intricate and exciting we’ve seen him do with the Imposters since he formed that band in the wake of the Attractions a couple of decades ago, with a temporarily expanded lineup that could be described as Imposters+.

An Intriguing Lineup

If the constant appropriation of tenor sax, trumpet, and trombone don’t make you horny, you might’ve felt differently. But it was well worth it to sacrifice a little of the rock ‘n’ roll fire of earlier parts of the tour — not all, a little — in favor of a less predictable roller coaster ride that engineered deep soul and jazz elements into its most delirious hairpin turns.

A Horn-Filled Setlist

Only one of the 23 songs performed over the show’s two hours and 15 minutes didn’t make any use of the horn section at all. That one, played nearly at the end of the night, seemed to have been called by Costello as an audible. It was “Blood and Hot Sauce,” a song from his “A Face in the Crowd”-based stage musical in progress that he has been previewing almost every night on tour in 2023, as a politically satirical gospel-rocker that happens to be rousing enough to serve as a run-up to “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding.”

Impact on Costello’s Classics

The remaining 22 all found a place for the three interlopers lined up to keyboardist Steve Nieve’s left — trumpet player and arranger Michael Leonhart, saxophonist Donny McCaslin, and trombonist Ray Mason. Sometimes they added minor augmentation to songs that felt like they should have horns, or at some point in the distant past really had. A couple of numbers from the vintage-R&B-inspired “Get Happy!!” — “Possession” and a medley of a “Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down” verse going into a full “High Fidelity” — gave indication of how some of the songs on that 1980 classic nearly seemed to have implied brass.

Rediscovering the Classics

But then it was also brought to bear on a few vintage songs where a fan probably never would have predicted it, like, namely, the set’s opening number, “Pills and Soap.” That song always a little on the cold and clinical side in Costello’s initial recording more than 40 years ago, but, without completely losing its ominous side, it sure warmed up in Leonhart’s show-opening arrangement; if you could substitute this version for the original in your collection, having heard it now, you probably would.

An Emphasis on Obscure Material

But one of the real joys of the show, at least for hardcore fans, was in the more “obscure” material from the 21st century that Costello chose to introduce into his show because he had a firm idea of what the horns could do with it. That included some material from the overlooked pandemic-era album that first brought Leonhart into the fold in a substantial way, 2021’s “Hey Clockface,” which contributed the fiercely moody “We Are All Cowards Now” and “Newspaper Pane” to the set.

A Mind-Blowing Solo

One of the highlights of the show was the song “Someone Took the Words Away” from 2003’s “North.” During this haunting ballad, the words were momentarily taken away as the instrumental section took over. Saxophonist Donny McCaslin delivered an astonishing and mind-blowing solo that descended in spirals, leaving the audience in awe of his talent and the emotional depth he brought to the performance.

A Show Worth Remembering

Focusing on the horn contributions admittedly doesn’t leave much room for admiring the never-taken-for-granted excellence of the Imposters, or of Costello himself, who seemed to have a couple tentative vocal moment or two in the opening numbers and then quickly warmed up into the world-class seether/belter his audience knows and loves. With additional guest Charlie Sexton on lead guitar, the band delivered a memorable performance that showcased the versatility and artistry of everyone involved.

In conclusion, Elvis Costello & the Imposters’ “We’re All Going on a Summer Holiday Tour” took an unexpected turn with the addition of a three-man horn section. This transformative presence reinvigorated the show and allowed for a unique and thrilling musical experience. Costello’s decision to retool the entire setlist around the horns brought new life to old classics and introduced fans to exciting new arrangements of obscure material. The result was a dream show that left the audience in awe of the talent and creativity on display.