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Nick Lowe Announces November U.S. Tour Dates Featuring Los Straitjackets

In addition to their busy 2023 touring schedule, Lowe and Los Straitjackets have been recording new music this year.

Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets have announced a new string of headlining US dates kicking off November 1, 2023 in Boston, with stops in New York City, Atlanta, Franklin, TN, and more. The three-week run follows a coast-to-coast summer tour supporting Elvis Costello and the Imposters which just wrapped last month.

Reviewing those shows, The Arizona Republic called Lowe the “perfect tourmate,” adding he was “his usual charming self.” The San Diego Union Tribune concluded Lowe’s set was simply “superb.” Before the November run, Lowe will also play select solo shows in the UK and Japan. See below for a full list of newly announced dates; tickets are on sale here .

Just last week, Yep Roc released the 25th Anniversary Edition of Lowe’s acclaimed 1998 album Dig My Mood. Featuring remastered audio, the Anniversary Edition includes a limited LP pressed on blue vinyl with a bonus 10” EP on yellow vinyl.

The bonus EP includes the rare studio track, “I’ll Give You All Night to Stop,” plus four live performances recorded at Club Quattro, Tokyo, Japan over two shows in March 1998, all previously unavailable digitally or on vinyl.

The album and bonus EP are also available now at all DSPs. Featuring now-standards and live favorites such as “You Inspire Me,” and “Man That I’ve Become,” Dig My Mood is the second installment in Lowe’s acclaimed “Brentford Trilogy” (which also includes 1994’s Impossible Bird, and 2001’s The Convincer), a string of releases that came to define his “remarkable second wind” (The New York Times). AllMusic calls the songs on Dig My Mood “quietly ambitious” adding that the album “finds Lowe at his best.”

In addition to their busy 2023 touring schedule, Lowe and Los Straitjackets have been recording new music this year. Stay tuned for more news soon.

NICK LOWE TOUR DATES FEATURING LOS STRAITJACKETS

August 19 - Folk in the Park - Sutton, United Kingdom* August 26 - Open House Festival - Bangor, United Kingdom* October 4 - Billboard Live Osaka - Osaka, Japan* October 6 - Billboard Live Tokyo - Tokyo, Japan* November 1 - Brighton Music Hall - Boston, MA November 2 - The Warehouse - Fairfield, CT November 4 - White Eagle Hall - Jersey City, NJ November 5 - The Bowery Ballroom - New York City, NY November 7 - The Colonial Theatre - Phoenixville, PA November 10 - Haw River Ballroom - Saxapahaw, NC November 11 - Variety Playhouse - Atlanta, GA November 12 - Franklin Theatre - Franklin, TN November 14 - Delmar Hall - St. Louis, MO November 15 - Knuckleheads - Kansas City, MO November 21 - SPACE - Evanston, IL*

* denotes Nick Lowe solo performance

photo credit: Jim Herrington

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Upcoming concerts for Nick Lowe

• Sunday June 23, 2024 Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets Levon Helm Studios, Woodstock
• Tuesday June 25, 2024 Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets Tarrytown Music Hall, Tarrytown
• Wednesday June 26, 2024 Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets Landmark On Main Street, Port Washington

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Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets

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Elvis Costello & The Imposters touring U.S. again with Nick Lowe & Los Straightjackets

Elvis Costello is hitting the road this spring and summer for a North American tour that will reprise his lineup last summer , performing with his band The Imposters — augmented by guitarist Charlie Sexton — and sharing the stage with old friend Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets .

The 23-date tour opens June 7 in Vancouver, B.C., and runs through a July 14 date in Philadelphia, with shows in between in Bend, Oregon; Los Angeles; Oklahoma City; Omaha, Nebraska; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Lenox, Massachusetts; Boston,; Syracuse, New York; and more.

A pre-sale for all shows begins 10 a.m. local time Wednesday, March 29, and the general on-sale follows at 10 a.m. Friday, March 31; see elviscostello.com for full details.

Costello will be backed by The Imposters — featuring former Attractions Steve Nieve and Pete Thomas, and ex-Cracker bassist Davey Faragher — with additional guitarist Charlie Sexton, who toured with the band last year as well. Opening the dates will be Costello’s old friend, producer and “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” songwriter Lowe, who himself will be backed by Los Straitjackets.

See full dates below.

Elvis Costello & The Imposters 2023 tour dates

June 7: Vancouver, British Columbia @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre June 9: Woodinville, WA @ Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery June 10: Bend, OR @ Hayden Homes Amphitheater June 11: Reno, NV @ Silver Legacy Casino Reno June 13: San Francisco, CA @ Golden Gate Theatre June 14: Ventura, CA @ Ventura Theatre June 16: Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre June 17: Las Vegas, NV @ Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino Resort June 18: Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theatre June 20: Oklahoma City, OK @ The Criterion June 21: Omaha, NE @ Steelhouse Omaha June 23: Hammond, IN @ The Venue at Horseshoe Casino June 24: Milwaukee, WI @ Summerfest June 25: Nashville, IN @ Brown County Music Center June 28: Rochester Hills, MI @ Meadow Brook Amphitheatre July 1: Lenox, MA @ Tanglewood July 2: Hampton Beach, NH @ Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom July 5: Bridgeport, CT @ Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater July 6: Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway July 8: Syracuse, NY @ Landmark Theatre July 9: Baltimore, MD @ The Lyric July 12: New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre July 14: Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia

PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS

• Elvis Costello & The Imposters announce U.S. tour with Nick Lowe & Los Straightjackets
• Elvis Costello’s new album ‘Hey Clockface’ due in October — hear 3 songs off it now
• Elvis Costello & The Imposters announce new album ‘Look Now,’ debut 2 songs
• Elvis Costello reveals ‘very aggressive’ cancer as he cancels tour to recover from surgery
• Video: Elvis Costello and The Roots turn ‘I Want You’ into a 13-minute slow burn
• Video: Elvis Costello & The Roots play ‘Fallon,’ cover The Specials in Brooklyn

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Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe Make for Dream Team at Orange County Tour Stop: Concert Review

By Chris Willman

Chris Willman

Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic

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Nick Lowe and Shakespeare were wrong, about having to be cruel to be kind. A tour stop Tuesday in Anaheim that had Lowe supporting headliner Elvis Costello as an opening act before eventually joining him for three climactic duets was kindly and 100% cruelty-free, reuniting the two former studio workmates in a fashion that made it seem as if no 40-year intervals had passed at all, except for the incidental actually-getting-better factors. (You’re not getting older, you’re getting Basher, etc.)

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Lowe’s set was not unpredictable or turn-on-a-dime like the headliner’s, although the band that has backed him for years on his infrequent tour outings, Los Straitjackets, does mix things up in a nightly two-song interlude while Lowe takes a break from the stage. (In Anaheim, the all-instrumentals group played the theme from “The Magnificent Seven” in place of the cover of “My Heart Will Go On” they alternate in and out.) Los Straitjackets still keep up the wrestling-mask gambit, which is understandable; it must be a burden for a former surf-rock group to walk the streets, recognized and mobbed. Anyway, theirs remains a pairing that keeps on working over the years, as Lowe has a world-class pickup band at the ready when he needs one, and one that can veer between his power-pop and country-rock sides with no sign of stretching.

Costello did his extra bit to make it a more Lowe-centric night than normal by opening his part of the show with his never-recorded, 120-mph reading of the other singer’s “Heart of the City,” as he occasionally has in the past, if never previously on this tour. From there, he mixed some tour standbys — being bathed in green is always a sure sign “Green Shirt” is about to commence, however teased-out the intro is — with rarely played numbers like the never-unfashionable “American Gangster Time.”

Costello was the master of the interpolation before every 12-year-old came to know that word, throwing extra songs in in the middle of others being his way of traditionally keeping an “Alison” interesting for himself every night after 45 years. Tuesday night, his “Watching the Detectives” offered an extended mid-section that incorporated “Invisible Lady,” a noir-styled song he co-wrote for a Mingus tribute way back when; even diehards looked confused at the lengthy departure. There were more looks of recognition when “Either Side of the Same Town,” a song from his Mississippi album of 2004, turned into a back-and-forth medley with an obvious inspiration for it, Dan Penn’s 1960s Southern soul classic “The Dark End of the Street.” The singer’s unerring falsettos as the strangers-when-we-meet song reached its soaringly lonesome peaks established that this would be a night when one of rock’s all-time great singers would be in peak form.

Another left turn came with the performance of “Big Stars Have Tumbled,” an unrecorded song that went unintroduced but that some buffs would know as a number from his still-unproduced “A Face in the Crowd”-based stage musical. Of all the songs from that thwarted show Costello has introduced in his sets over the years, this may be the one that best stands alone without any need of a we-join-this-story-in-progress stage intro. It served as a turquoise mood-setter for “Almost Blue,” a somber classic that hasn’t gotten much airing lately amid his mostly frenetic shows with the Imposters, but which maybe needed exactly that setup for a RBI.

Sexton has been a phenomenal addition to the Imposters — originally announced as an auxillary player for a date that keyboard player Steve Nieve couldn’t male in 2021, then sticking around ever since. Whether he’ll remain with the band as never-endingly as he did with Bob Dylan’s Never-Ending Tour will have to be seen. But having two great lead-and-rhythm guitarists in the group (Costello has turned into a terrific one himself, late in his career) is quite a wrinkle for a singer-songwriter who originally made his name with a long succession of albums that were remarkable for having virtually no guitar solos. Who would have expected to see Costello and Sexton jamming out — just infrequently enough that you don’t get too used to the idea — like they were a 2020s Allmans?

The two backing vocalists that Costello employed for several tours prior to the pandemic are missed, in spots, but in Sexton and bassist Davey Faragher, the singer now has two capable backup singers where for the first two decades of his career he had none, and it allows him to do a call-and-response like “Farewell OK” that he never could’ve before. (Having a virtuoso like Sexton on board also finally allows the intro of “Alison” to be played the more complicated way it was first recorded, he’s pointed out.)

One other benefit that has come with having Sexton on stage and not a pair of dedicated backup singers is the ability to make more spontaneous choices. On nights like these, Costello’s shows live in the best of all possible rock worlds: mining a brilliant catalog that is known for nothing if not the intellectual preciseness of the writing, and taking it out with a hard-rocking band and a jazz-inspired ethos where you get the feeling anything could happen. And when Lowe, whose production of the early records helped set the template for all this, turns up as a fellow failed suitor for Alison, it’s extra frosting on her — and our — cake.

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Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets Concert Setlists & Tour Dates

We’re all going on a summer holiday tour 2023 tour, nick lowe & los straitjackets, upcoming shows.

• Date and Venue Doors Scheduled
• Jun 25 2024 Tarrytown Music Hall Tarrytown, NY, USA Add time Add time Add times
• Jun 26 2024 Landmark on Main Street Port Washington, NY, USA Add time Add time Add times

Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets at Turf Club, St. Paul, MN, USA

• Ragin' Eyes
• Without Love
• You Inspire Me
• I Live on a Battlefield
• Somebody Cares for Me
• I Went to a Party
• Calhoun Surf
• Driving Guitars
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Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets at Knuckleheads, Kansas City, MO, USA

• Lately I've Let Things Slide
• High on a Wire
• My Heart Will Go On

Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets at Delmar Hall, St. Louis, MO, USA

Nick lowe & los straitjackets at franklin theatre, franklin, tn, usa.

• The Magnificent Seven Theme

Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets at Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA, USA

Nick lowe & los straitjackets at haw river ballroom, saxapahaw, nc, usa, nick lowe & los straitjackets at shaftman performance hall - jefferson center, roanoke, va, usa.

• Lay It On Me Baby
• Half a Boy and Half a Man

Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets at Colonial Theatre, Phoenixville, PA, USA

Nick lowe & los straitjackets at bowery ballroom, new york, ny, usa.

• Shting-Shtang

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Most played songs

• Cruel to Be Kind ( 128 )
• Ragin' Eyes ( 123 )
• So It Goes ( 117 )
• Tokyo Bay ( 117 )
• Without Love ( 117 )

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Artists covered

[traditional] Leroy Anderson & His Pops Orchestra Bee Gees Elmer Bernstein Blondie Brinsley Schwarz Elvis Costello Céline Dion Ramin Djawadi The Easybeats Graham Gouldman Vince Guaraldi Trio Earle Hagen Neal Hefti Richard Himber and His Orchestra Brenda Lee Nick Lowe Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit The Marketts Moon Mullican Nick Lowe & Paul Carrack Louis Prima and His New Orleans Gang The Revels Dig Richards Marty Robbins Rockpile Shocking Blue Small Faces Los Straitjackets R. Dean Taylor The Trashmen The Ventures Wizzard Link Wray & His Raymen

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Elvis Costello's Phoenix performance was an emotional rollercoaster in the very best way

Seeing Elvis Costello share a bill with Nick Lowe is always a special occasion for anyone at all familiar with Costello’s storied past, holding out the promise of the two old friends sharing the spotlight before the night is through.

On Father's Day at Arizona Financial Theatre in Phoenix, that moment arrived as Costello was nearing the end of a brilliant, unpredictable performance whose more surreal moments were further enhanced by the sweltering heat inside a theater whose air conditioning unit appeared to have taken the holiday off to spend time with its family.

After leading the Imposters in a breathless trip through “Pump It Up,” Costello welcomed the tour mate who produced his first five albums back on stage to trade off verses on the last two songs — “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” (a bit of a given for those who know who wrote it) and “Alison."

Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe sounded great on 'Alison'

Lowe even did the monologue from his original recording of “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” with British pub-rock legends Brinsley Schwarz: “We must have peace. More peace and love. If just for the children. Of a new generation.”

As a longtime fan of both acts, I may have lost it at "We must have peace."

Lowe also sounded right at home slipping into the spotlight on the second verse of “Alison,” providing a more wistful reading of the lines, especially “Sometimes I wish that I could stop you from talking when I hear the silly things that you say.”

Different Drum: How a pop song written by one of the Monkees made Linda Ronstadt a star

Elvis Costello's setlist featured 'Pump It Up' and other 'This Year's Model' classics

Costello and Lowe arrived in Phoenix on the wonderfully titled We're All Going on a Summer Holiday Tour, which takes its name from the opening line of “The Beat” from the headliner's iconic second album, "This Year's Model."

“The Beat” was one of several songs he did from “This Year’s Model” (including two that only showed up on one side of the Atlantic or the other) — the previously mentioned “Pump It Up,” “Radio Radio” and “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea.”

Costello also led the Imposters, whose ranks have once again been fleshed out for the road with guest guitarist Charlie Sexton, through three highlights of his first release, “My Aim is True,” setting the tone for the show with a rollicking “Mystery Dance.”

But the Phoenix concert wasn't just an Elvis Costello greatest hits tour

And yet, it never felt much like a greatest hits tour or a case of someone resting on his laurels.

He dusted off four songs from last year’s model, “The Boy Named If” — including a transcendent “What If I Can’t Give You Anything But Love?” and a magnificently wounded “Magnificent Hurt.”

He also whisper-sang his way with sinister glee through the chorus of a brilliantly delivered “Hetty O’Hara Confidential” from his previous release, “Hey Clockface,” and led the Imposters through a swinging rendition of the unreleased “Like Licorice on Your Tongue.”

She was the Female Elvis: How a Phoenix rockabilly teen made the cover of Bob Dylan's book

Reinventing Elvis Costello's classic songs

What really made it nothing like a greatest hits show, though, was the way he and his bandmates approached those older classics — taking liberties, if you will, with the arrangements and the phrasing of his lyrics.

These were not Bob Dylan-level reinventions, mind you, where you’re halfway through the song before the crowd applauds whatever tell-tale sign reveals the song’s identity.

They were just different enough to keep it interesting for the musicians, three of whom have been on board since the Attractions days — Costello, keyboard wizard Steve Nieve and drummer Pete Thomas with resident “new guy since 2001" Davey Faragher in for Bruce Thomas on bass.

“Accidents Will Happen” was transported to a jazz club, a tortured rendition that found Nieve accompanying the singer on piano and the other players sitting that one out until the haunting psychedelic outro.

Costello sat (“so I can get a good look into your wicked eyes”) for “Almost Blue,” playing loose with the phrasing on a somehow more dramatic version than the one on “Imperial Bedroom” and bringing the jazzy arrangement to a close with a line from “All or Nothing At All,” a song made popular by Frank Sinatra in the ‘40s.

“Waiting for the End of the World” was reimagined in the film-noir shadows, Costello never actually delivering the singalong chorus in full and Nieve adding train sounds on his keyboards to complement the lyrics.  

It was a night of brilliant playing, from Costello's lead guitar to Steve Nieve

They spent much of the night stretching out the arrangements, at times straying into territory more associated with the Grateful Dead.

Costello himself has evolved through the years into quite the adventurous lead guitarist, landing on the perfect unexpected note more times in one performance than most lead guitarists get to in a lifetime.

Nieve's playing was as awe-inspiring as ever, if occasionally overpowered in the mix. The man remains an unsung genius. And Sexton is clearly no slouch in the guitar department.

There were moments when the vocals didn't land exactly as intended but overall Costello was in fine voice and remains one of the more expressive singers of his generation.

In a review of the opening night of this year’s tour, Costello was quoted as saying, “We’re altering songs in some foolish and fantastic ways.” At this point in the tour, it was that willingness to be revealed as fools that led to many of the concert's most fantastic moments.

Other highlights ranged from an epic rendition of “When I Was Cruel No. 2” with Nieve on melodica at first before slipping the melody to ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” into the arrangement on piano, to Costello’s breathtaking delivery on the Paul McCartney co-write “So Like Candy.”

'It was our Fillmore': Metro Phoenix had never seen a club quite like Dooley's in Tempe

Elvis Costello remains a wildly entertaining, at times hilarious, showman

Through it all, Costello’s sense of showmanship came shining through, setting up songs with a seemingly endless supply of hilarious anecdotes.

His tale of being made to tour with Eddie Money because they shared a U.S. label was off to a crowd-pleasing start before it even dovetailed into how Bruce Springsteen’s early songs informed Costello’s idealized vision of America.

“Where I went to the seaside, in Liverpool, when I a kid, there was just a sad donkey tied to a post,” he recalled.

“So all these songs about Roy Orbison playing on the radio, it sounded like incredible magic to me ... I was so impressed by all this American romanticism.”

So they show up in Asbury Park on that first tour.

“I thought, 'Bruce Springsteen is a (expletive) genius.' He made it sound like the most magical place on earth ... And you know what I found at the end of the boardwalk? A telescope. And you put 25 cents in it and you could occasionally see the sea. And there’s a (expletive) donkey tied to a post.”

He also reflected a bit on his rep as the angry young man of the New Wave era.

“I was a little bit vexed,” he said. “I wasn’t really angry. I was a bit miffed.”

Best of all, it felt like he was having fun. And that enthusiasm was contagious.

Nick Lowe proved the perfect tourmate leading Los Straitjackets

Nick Lowe was his usual charming self in an opening set that found him backed by the men in the Mexican wrestling masks, Los Straitjackets.

“Our boss, Mr. Costello, has engaged us to warm up the house, in show-biz parlance, which really means play some music while you guys find your seats,” Lowe explained with expert comic timing.

He set the tone with his first solo record, “So It Goes,” done in a much more leisurely fashion than the original, following through with two more early classics, “Raging Eyes” and a “Without Love” that really played to that song’s country leanings. 

Lowe’s performance really hit its stride, though, when he moved on to material from the albums he’s released since settling into a gentlemanly vibe on 1995’s “The Impossible Bird,” from the melancholy balladry of “House for Sale” and “I Live On a Battlefield” to the gently rollicking “Tokyo Bay.”

Lowe ceded the spotlight to Los Straitjackets for a two-song instrumental interlude while he changed clothes, eventually bringing his set to a crowd-pleasing finish with “Cruel to Be Kind” and Rockpile’s “When I Write the Book.”

Elvis Costello's 2023 setlist in Phoenix

"Mystery Dance"

"Hetty O'Hara Confidential"

"Radio Radio"

"When I Was Cruel No. 2"

"Accidents Will Happen"

"Almost Blue"

"Like Licorice on Your Tongue"

"So Like Candy"

"Waiting for the End of the World"

"Man Out of Time"

"(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea"

"The Death of Magic Thinking"

"What if I Can't Give You Anything but Love?"

"The Man You Love to Hate"

"Magnificent Hurt"

"Pump It Up"

"(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding" (with Nick Lowe)

"Alison" (with Nick Lowe)

Reach the reporter at  [email protected]  or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter  @ EdMasley.

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Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe 2023 Tour—Review

Elvis Costello at the Chateau Ste. Michelle in Woodinville, Wash., June 9, 2023 (Photo by Brad Auerbach, used with permission)

With the thickest, deepest, most eclectic songbook of any artist that first recorded in the 1970s, Elvis Costello rolled into Chateau Ste Michelle outside of Seattle for a return engagement on June 9, 2023. What a lovely setting for a show: very casual, intimate and comfortable.

Despite a seemingly endless choice of songs, the former computer programmer from Britain pulled heavily from his debut and sophomore albums. With Costello deftly remixing various arrangements, those who were with him from day one were rewarded with a blissful evening.

Earlier in the year, Costello commanded an epic 10 nights at New York’s Gramercy Theatre, barely repeating a song. Despite a few rusty joints, he and his crack quartet the Imposters shifted gears smoothly through the evening.

Over the decades and across 30-plus albums, Costello, born August 25, 1954, has explored myriad styles (country, string quartets, Americana, to name a few) and collaborated with master tunesmiths like Paul McCartney and Burt Bacharach. He has adroitly recorded with key members of the other Elvis’ band. But at this show, Costello eschewed all that and reached into the early chapters of his songbook. Although those songs were written when he was slathered with the ‘angry young man’ label, the songs have withstood the test of time, and were delivered with a solid punch. Original members Davey Faragher (bass), Steve Nieve (keyboards) and Pete Thomas (drums) were joined by Charlie Sexton, the fierce guitarist who turbocharged Bob Dylan’s band for years.

Watch Costello and Lowe together at a show from 2022

Costello opened with an explosive “Mystery Dance” and moved to his second album with “This Year’s Girl.” A relatively new song, 2013’s “Come the Meantimes,” slithered into a ska-inflected beat and then morphed full bore into “Rudie Can’t Fail” (pulled from the Clash’s landmark 1979 London Calling album).

Costello delivered an excellent intro about the risk of picking the “wrong” album at a record store but delicately selecting Bruce Springsteen’s first album (“a Dutch singer, right?”), then blasted into a torrid “Radio Radio.”

Costello then went back to his first album, serving up the disc-closing “Waiting For the End of the World.” He also assayed the album’s opener, “Welcome to the Working Week,” in countrified fashion. As if transporting us back to the late ’70s, he also delivered welcome versions of “Watching the Detectives,” “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea” and a blazing “Pump It Up.”

“(What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace Love and Understanding” was the perfect way to complete the circle of the evening. Written by Lowe, made famous by Costello on an album produced by Lowe, the song inadvertently made Lowe very wealthy when Curtis Stigers’ version landed on The Bodyguard soundtrack.

The evening’s closing number seemed foretold, and indeed Costello delivered a tender version of “Alison.”

As only the second date on his summer tour, odds are the Costello setlist will evolve by the time it hits your town.

Nick Lowe at Chateau Ste. Michelle in Woodinville, Wash., June 9, 2023 (Photo by Brad Auerbach, used with permission)

Opening act Lowe will likely stick to his polished set. As the ace producer behind Costello’s first five albums, Lowe is well attuned to songcraft. His evolution from scrappy new waver (“Cruel to be Kind” and “So It Goes”) to well-aged observer (“Lately I’ve Let Things Slide”) puts Lowe in rarefied territory. His enigmatic band Los Straitjackets come equipped with lucha libre masks, matching sparkly guitars and superb stage polish.

Costello has more dates. Tickets are available here and here .

Related: Links for 100s of classic rock tours

Watch them perform together in 2022

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7 Comments so far

That was the worst show I’ve ever witnessed in my entire lifetime. Worse than bad karaoke.

Elvis’s voice wasn’t great, sound mix was woeful, and Nick Lowe didn’t come back for Peace, Love and Understandin’. Greek Theater.

I stuck it out to the end of EC’s show because I knew that Nick Lowe would come back and duet on “What’s So Funny”…. then he didn’t come out. But I couldn’t blame him, because Elvis did a woeful bass-heavy version that totally downplayed the killer chord progression on guitar that MAKES the freaking song! I didn’t get EC at all this show. Here’s some advice for Elvis…..just honor the original arrangement.

Saw him in Vegas last night. The reviewer for this article must have been on crack. I’m a big Costello fan and last night I was embarrassed for him. The arrangements for his ‘classics’ were pure garbage. His solos with just piano were like cats howling. After an hour in, the aisles were steady with people leaving. We joined them. Don’t waste your money.

I would say…. When the imposters were just riffing, it was a cool vibe. But as soon as Costello joined in, the vibe was gone.

Just saw the show last night in Michigan. The 4th time I’ve seen him (three prior times were amazing) and had to leave after an hour. The Worst. Arrangements-WTF? Mix-painful and shrill with over bearing drums (and totally different mix from Nick Lowe’s whose sound was clean and crisp so EC must have had his guy working the board for him.) Performance shockingly bad (timing was off, not even in the same key at times, piano solo ended with awkward silence and then hit a single key-I think EC missed the transition). Horrific singing. And most disturbing, EC had trouble handing off the guitar to a roadie and stood there in a stupor blankly staring into the crowd motionless for what seemed an eternity and then almost fell over when handed a guitar. He is ill or was very drunk.

Elvis Costello is an artist that I’ve wanted to see for years. I attended his concert in Phoenix and was hugely disappointed. I was hesitant to see him when I looked at the setlists of some of his previous shows on this tour, and I should have followed my instincts. He could have played so many great, familiar songs like “Veronica”, “Everyday I Write the Book”, etc but the setlist left a lot to be desired. He sang a slow, dirge-like version of “Accidents Will Happen” accompanied by only a piano that was truly horrible. Vocally he sounds like he has really slipped since his heyday. Having been a fan of his for decades, seeing him in person was a big letdown.

The concert was extremely poor. Almost laughable in parts.

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Lowe, Los Straitjackets stay on track

Paradise rock club, boston, november 1, 2023.

Reviewed by Jeffrey B. Remz

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Noise Annoys: Nick Lowe on touring with Elvis Costello and his Bangor solo show

Ahead of his solo appearance at bangor's open house festival next month, noise annoys catches up with cult singer-songwriter and producer nick lowe to talk about touring the us with his friend and collaborator elvis costello and how he's ended up in band with four masked surf rockers....

David has been a features reporter at The Irish News since 2001, writing about music, cinema, comedy, theatre, books, art, TV, travel, motoring and more....

HE might be billed as the "headmaster of British rock" by the Open House Festival for his upcoming appearance at Bangor's Walled Garden next month, but despite Nick Lowe's dapper appearance and illustrious musical CV featuring stints as a pub rocker, alternative pop star, songwriter and Stiff Records-trained producer extraordinaire, even he is not immune to the grottier aspects of life on the road as a touring musician – like having to wash your smalls.

"It costs a small fortune to have a pair of socks laundered in most of these hotels," chuckles Lowe (74) down the phone from New York, where he and his backing band Los Straitjackets are opening for long-time pal Elvis Costello on the latter's We're All Going on a Summer Holiday US tour.

"I tend to take a little bit of travel wash and do it myself – so my room looks a bit like a tart's garrett at the moment, with items hanging off various surfaces to dry."

Needs must on the road in America, where 'days off' often actually involve travelling hundreds of miles to the next stop on the tour itinerary, as the singer/songwriter explains.

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"This is a bus tour, and quite often we're chasing the Imposters' bus down the road – so what looks like a day off just means we're travelling to keep up with them," says Lowe, who produced Costello's debut album on Stiff, along with his next four albums: other notable production credits include The Damned's classic debut single and LP and Wreckless Eric's much loved (and covered) Whole Wide World single, also all issued by Stiff.

"We're in a minivan, and very often when we've done our show, we drive off and go 100 miles down the road and stay in a motel, and then drive a couple of hundred the next day to get to the next show."

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With their penchant for sporting Mexican wrestling masks while delivering a thrilling repertoire of twangy surf-rock instrumentals, Nashville-bred quartet Los Straitjackets make for a superficially odd pairing with this suave, be-suited Englishman. However, the US band actually bring an appealingly rootsy, grooving quality to Lowe's best-known tunes, such as his classic debut single So It Goes, his 1979 Top 20 hit Cruel To Be Kind, and When I Write The Book from his stint in 1970s pub rock outfit Rockpile.

"On paper, it sort of doesn't work at all," admits Lowe of this unlikely team-up, which has thus far yielded one excellent studio LP, 2017's amusingly titled What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Los Straitjackets? – a play on (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?, the Lowe original which Elvis Costello has long made his own – and an entertaining live album.

"But I've known [Los Straitjackets] for a long, long time, and was a fan of theirs long before we shared the same manager.

"We came together because I made a Christmas record a few years back [2013's Quality Street], and shortly afterwards two of the key members of my little circle, Bobby Irwin and Neil Brockbank, who played on the record and used to tour with me, died.

"That took the wind out of my sails a bit, so I never promoted the record. But the one good thing about a Christmas record is that it's the gift that keeps on giving: after a couple of years, it was suggested that I do a few Christmas shows with the Straitjackets backing me.

"That seemed like a great idea, and it was fun, so we did it for two or three years. Then we started getting offers to do 'out of season' work, and that's when it really got cracking. So we've been [touring] a couple of times a year for about two years now and I've started writing songs for us.

"It doesn't feel like they're my backing group at all, you know: when we get together it really does feel like it's a group that we dreamt up together."

Certainly, the combo have been well received by the crowds who have been turning out for the recent US shows with Costello. In fact, the Walton-on-Thames-born musician has often been joining Costello on-stage to perform the aforementioned (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding? and one of the headliner's own live favourites from his Lowe-produced years, Alison.

"Elvis has kindly invited me up to do stuff with him, and I sometimes do," says Lowe.

"Most of the people that come and see Elvis know who I am as I've got this form with him from back in the day. So we really get a pretty good reception.

"He's very generous with the crew and everyone helps us, you know? I've opened for a lot of people in the past and it's not always like that: for some reason the headline act can make make life quite difficult for the openers, but that certainly hasn't been the case with Elvis."Given that their professional lives have been intertwined for so long at this point, I wondered if Lowe could recall the first time he and Costello actually met.

"I can, actually," he reveals, "and it was quite romantic, in a way."In the 1970s, I was in a band called Brinsley Schwarz and Elvis used to come and see us play whenever we'd go up to Liverpool or north-west England. We'd obviously noticed him, as he was very distinctive looking."Then, one night we were having a drink in The Grapes pub across from The Cavern, when he walked in. I saw him and I said, 'Oh, there's that funny looking guy who comes to see us, I'm going to go and buy a round of drinks and talk to him.'"He remembers it slightly differently: he says he saw me buying a round of drinks at the bar and came and bought me one. But anyway, that's how we first met."After that, I sort of kept tabs on him. I knew he had a pub rock group, and the next time I met him was when he brought a tape into Stiff Records and they signed him."Naturally, Lowe could never have imagined that the pair would still be working together almost 50 years later:"I certainly never expected that I'd be working so long as this in the music business – because there was no-one doing it at such an advanced age back then. But there's plenty of us still going now."

Next month's Nick Lowe show in Bangor will find the evergreen veteran playing solo, offering up stripped-down versions of all your favourites from across his impressive career."It's always great to come back and play in Ireland," enthuses Lowe, who has been a regular visitor here since his Brinsley Schwartz days."I'm very glad that I can play the solo shows as well as this stuff with the Straitjackets, as it means I can play a slightly different collection of tunes."Some work better solo and some don't – but actually, it's amazing how many tunes work well in both formats."Proof, as if proof were needed, that Lowe and his canon are still in great nick after all these years. :: Nick Lowe, Saturday August 26, The Walled Garden, Bangor. Tickets via openhousefestival.com

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