Elvis Costello

Club Date: Live in Memphis

BY Chuck MolgatPublished May 1, 2005

If you weren't among the lucky 200 locals who managed to score tickets for this intimate engagement at Memphis's Hi-Tone Cafe, this is as up-close and personal as you're likely to get. Shot in high def, Club Date features Costello and company running through two dozen songs ranging from familiar classics to new titles from The Delivery Man. The tight camera angles necessitated by the small venue make the gig look more like an extended late night talk show performance than a concert, but that's less detracting than the at-times excessive audience clatter. Emmylou Harris joins Elvis for no fewer than five duets, but the real highlight is the lengthy documentary extra Off the Beaten Path: A Roadtrip With Elvis & Pete, in which the two old pals tour around Tennessee and Arkansas in the back of a '54 Cadillac. Along the way, they visit an old plantation, the Stax museum, the legendary King Biscuit Time radio show and a couple of rustic studios where most of The Delivery Man was recorded. Very cool. (Eagle Rock)

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