Elvis Costello Helps Welcome the Return of the Fillmore Miami Beach

It had been more than a year and a half since the Fillmore Miami Beach closed for renovation, so last Friday, it was a comfort for nostalgists to see that not much had changed for the South Beach institution in its first major show since May 2022. The Lebo mural and the framed vintage posters still decorate the walls. The band merch table is still the first thing you see when you enter the lobby, and the historic theater makes you feel like Jackie Gleason is about to step out on the stage to entertain.

But for the unofficial grand reopening, the Fillmore crowd was treated to something a bit younger than Gleason: Elvis Costello & the Imposters.

It was the first time the 69-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer played the venue in nearly 20 years. Costello and his four-piece backing band took to the stage at 8:15 p.m. and played a no-nonsense set that lasted nearly three hours.

Well, there was a little bit of nonsense as the bespectacled singer told tall tales between tracks. "This is a song I found in a pile of old records, and we learned it this afternoon," he said as the band went into an unreleased rockabilly Elvis Costello original, "My Baby Just Squeals (You Heal)," that, according to the internet, the band had learned at least two nights before since it was performed at the Tallahassee and Tampa shows as well.

Costello seemed to enjoy the between-song banter so much that you might better describe his set as between-banter songs. From a stage cluttered with all kinds of instruments, he told the audience, "We play two kinds of songs: songs with girls' names in them and songs about confectionary."

Even if I knew what confectionary is, a truer classification describing his concert's two kinds of songs were the songs he sat down to perform and the songs where he stood up. The sit-down songs weren't necessarily more mellow. He gave a lot of gusto while at the piano to play "Blood & Hot Sauce" and showed off his multilingualism with a rendition of the Italian language song "Dio Come Ti Amo."

But he was in an upright position for most of his early songs from the 1970s. He changed the arrangements for most of those standards. "Watching the Detective" got spooky, freaky, and a little experimental as it was extended and drawn out way past its traditional under-four-minute running time. The low-energy reworking of "Pump It Up" was less effective.

Costello's songs are generally too wordy for audience sing-alongs, but he kept the tracks that allowed for crowd participation a little more faithful to their recorded form. For "Less than Zero," fans could shout out, "Hey, re-e-ed," and for "Alison," he left enough space that the crowd could be the ones who sing, "My aim is true."

After a rendition of "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding," Costello and his band stood center stage to accept what seemed to be their final applause, but they decided to play one final number which combined the sit-down and stand-up Costello before morphing into something else unexpected.

It was a version of "I Want You," the 1986 song that starts as a slower sort of ballad, but after the first few minutes, it rocks a little harder. As the band jammed, Costello left the safety of the stage and microphone, grabbed a bull horn, walked among the seats on the floor, and kept singing. He threw in some lyrics from John Lennon and Dionne Warwick and even played around with the effects of the megaphone with police sirens added to the mix, and just like that, the Fillmore was back.

Setlist:
- "A Town Called Riddle"
- "Waiting for the End of the World"
- "Strict Time"
- "Hetty O'Hara Confidential"
- "Radio Radio"
- "I Hope You're Happy Now"
- "My Baby Just Squeals (You Heal)"
- "I Don't Want Your Lyndon Johnson"
- "Like Licorice on Your Tongue"
- "Mystery Dance"
- "Watching the Detectives"
- "Everyday I Write the Book"
- "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes"
- "Less Than Zero"
- "Everybody's Cryin' Mercy"
- "Blood & Hot Sauce"
- "Dio Come Ti Amo"/"Almost Blue"
- "Clubland"
- "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea"
- "Magnificent Hurt"
- "Pump It Up"
- "Alison"
- "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding"
- "I Want You"