Last Saturday, we were up in Philly for the day, and stopped by the Reading Terminal Market (pretty much the same as Lexington Market in Charm City, and smaller versions in town like Cross Street and Broadway markets) and the Mütter Museum before the main reason for our visit, Elvis Costello at the Electric Factory.
Not sure whether it was because it was the last night of the tour, but the band came out with a lot of energy, and didn't take a break until they were seven or eight songs in. They even played through when the drummer broke his bass head after three songs. I caught Costello for the first time three years ago in Vegas, and this show was night-and-day different from that one, in that almost every song was loud and fast. They played one of my favorites, Beyond Belief, and it rocked considerably more than the recorded version. Elvis was as cool as ever, in a black suit, shirt and tie, and dark sunglasses (ah, to be a rock musician!), and his voice has to be one of the more underrated ones in the business - the guy can sing any style, and has a deceptively impressive range. Do I sound like a music critic yet? I hope not.
Surprise guest Allen Toussaint, a fellow HOFer and collaborator on The River in Reverse, sat in for thirty-plus minutes; the guy plays an effortless keyboard, and has a cool voice. For the last song, which capped a two-and-a-half hour show, Elvis segued from Peace, Love and Understanding into the chorus of Bring the Boys Home - a nice touch during an otherwise politically-understated show.
2 comments:
The Mutter Museum looks pretty cool. :)
It was cool, a bit disturbing, but cool. One neat aspect was that the exhibits didn't seem to be designed specifically for the general public, so they weren't dumbed-down that much. This was frustrating too - I've taken some biology in my time but it's very easy to get lost in medical terms. Plus I'm not sure how helpful it is showing a diseased liver or gall bladder in preservation, when most people wouldn't know what the healthy organ looks like.
One other cool feature: the audio tour via cellphone - call the number, enter in the exhibit code, listen, hang up, repeat when you come to the next audio portion.
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