Last week I was lucky enough to catch Elvis Costello's solo show here in Singapore at the Esplanade Concert Hall across from the Mandarin Oriental. The tickets were pricey but the hall was beautiful and there was not a bad seat in sight. The acoustics were fabulous and Elvis continued to revel at the intimacy of the hall and how he could do things there that he wasn't able to in other halls (like sing off mike or play his “quiet songs”). The audience was adoring and laughed even during chilling moments that gave me goosebumps. And also guitar solos that didn't work (he used a guitar petal to layer reverbed guitar lines on top of each other). This went on and on but he was having fun and we didn't really mind. He played the song “Every day I write the book” which reminded me of dancing at Adolf's bar when I was 18 and going to Bard College in New York. He told us the last time he was here in Singapore was 30 years ago. He couldn't sleep after the show so he went to one of the crazy markets and bought his producer a stuffed python and mongoose in battle. He played here for one night and has a mess of concert dates in Austalia this month. His latest album is Secret, Profane, and Sugarcane.