Elvis Costello and Daryl Hall’s joint tour got here to New York City on Tuesday night time, particularly to the showplace of the nation, Radio City Music Hall.

For these scratching their heads after listening to these two names collectively — this author included when she initially heard it a number of months in the past — there’s a historical past. Four many years in the past, Hall contributed concord vocals to one in every of Costello’s albums, 1984’s Goodbye Cruel World, on a track known as “The Only Flame in Town.” (Hall additionally appeared within the accompanying music video. From Costello’s album liner notes: “Naturally, my romantic rival was Daryl, but my only real humiliation was in having a Columbia promotion woman hector the makeup girl: ‘Make him look handsome,’ while a very hungover Daryl sat in the next chair looking like a movie star. His hair was perfect.”)

And it is not as if the 2 come from totally completely different worlds, even when from reverse sides of the Atlantic Ocean. While Hall and his one-time musical accomplice John Oates crafted what could be described as new wave soul, Costello was only a couple years away from taking related parts and mixing them with a pub rock really feel and a Dylan-like lyrical sensibility. Of course, none of those phrases are absolute and principally exist to assist categorize artists on a business stage, but when there may be one factor Hall and Costello have in frequent, it is that they created the form of “pop” music that moved the musical needle ahead.

Costello took the stage first, donning his signature cockeyed fedora and Fender Jazzmaster, and he introduced up the aforementioned “The Only Flame in Town” music video, giving the (as would quickly be clear) Hall-oriented viewers a reminder of why he was there.

“Daryl arrived I think directly from Studio 54,” he mentioned.” In that moment, I thought, ‘Fuck it, I’ve got a chance…it’s amazing what black coffee and Visine can do.”

READ MORE: Elvis Costello Albums Ranked Worst to Best

Costello’s band is again to the standard five-piece. Last week, the lineup shifted fairly dramatically with each bassist Davey Faragher and guitarist Charlie Sexton out sick, leaving Costello performing solely with drummer Pete Thomas and pianist Steve Nieve — or as Costello put it himself, “as close to the Attractions as you’re ever gonna get.”

And he is utilizing it to his full benefit. While some songs caught nearer to their unique preparations, others took on new shapes. “Indoor Fireworks” loped alongside just like the form of nation observe Johnny Cash might need included on American Recordings. “Mystery Dance” featured Costello taking part in a guitar as soon as owned by Chuck Berry — “He played it better” — and was made right into a scorching blues quantity.

Watch Elvis Costello Perform ‘No Reason to Quit’ and ‘Indoor Fireworks’ at Radio City

Then got here Hall. “Been a while since I’ve been in this room,” he mentioned. “Seems kind of formal, we’ll make it work.”

Like Costello, Hall performed the large hits, with a couple of solo numbers thrown in, and it was nearly instantly evident that for nonetheless many viewers members left the venue after Costello’s set, they have been vastly outnumbered by those that had clearly come for Hall.

Regardless, it was unimaginable to disregard the jarring and noticeable juxtaposition between Costello’s singing of songs about dragging lakes and leaving fingers mendacity in wedding ceremony desserts to significantly much less incisive numbers that, for probably the most half, neatly adopted the studio variations. For all of the issues the 2 acts might have in frequent, it isn’t a parallelism that interprets effectively to the dwell stage.

Still, you may hear the classics from each artists in a single kind or one other, and it is exhausting to argue with two for the value of 1.

Watch Daryl Hall Perform at Radio City Music Hall

Elvis Costello, 7/16/24, Radio City Music Hall, New York City, Set List
1. “Pump It Up”
2. “Watching the Detectives”
3. “No Flag”
4. “Green Shirt”
5. “We Are All Cowards Now”
6. “No Reason to Quit” (Dean Holloway cowl)
7. “Indoor Fireworks”
8. “Wonder Woman” (Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint cowl)
9. “Everyday I Write the Book”
10. “A Face in the Crowd”
11. “Everybody’s Cryin’ Mercy” (Mose Allison cowl)
12. “Mystery Dance”
13. “Clubland” (with little bit of the Specials “Ghost Town” and “Impatience”)
14. “Alison” (with “You’ve Been Cheating”)
15. “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea”
16. “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” (Nick Lowe cowl)