Elvis Costello has announced 2025 tour dates for “Radio Soul!: The Early Songs of Elvis Costello.” The tour kicks off in Seattle, WA, on June 12th and spans the United States, with stops in Portland, Reno, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Nashville, before closing in Miami Beach on July 12th.
As the playful billing suggests, the show will feature numbers drawn from record releases from “My Aim Is True” in 1977 to “Blood & Chocolate” in 1986, along with other surprises.
Those nine years saw the first appearance of some of Elvis Costello’s most renowned compositions, from “Watching The Detectives” to “I Want You,” along with songs that have remained in The Imposters’ live repertoire over the last 20 or more years, including “Alison,” “Man Out Of Time,” and “Brilliant Mistake.”
Asked about the surprising theme of this tour, Costello responded: “For any songwriter, it has to be a compliment if people want to hear songs written up to fifty years ago. Among them, “Radio Soul,” the first draft of what eventually became “Radio Radio.”
Regarding the decision to sharpen the focus on a specific period of time, Costello reminded us, “You can expect the unexpected and the faithful in equal measure. Don’t forget this show is ‘Performed by Elvis Costello & The Imposters,’ an ensemble which includes three people who first recorded this music and two more who bring something entirely new. They are nobody’s tribute band.
The Imposters are a living, breathing, swooning, swinging, kicking, and screaming rock and roll band who can turn their hands to a pretty ballad when the opportunity arises.”
The Imposters are Steve Nieve, Pete Thomas, and Davey Faragher, and they are joined once again by guitarist Charlie Sexton.
Costello concluded, “If there is an encore and we play, ‘Farewell, OK,’ it probably means some of those ‘Early Songs’ will have been performed in your city for the very last time. I don’t want to go back; I want to bring these songs into the present day, once more, in the event they are ever pushed out of the way by the next number that I write. You could say time is running out, but only time will tell. Don’t be late; the band hits at eight.”
This tour follows the recent release of “King Of America & Other Realms,” a 6-CD anthology that tells the story of that 1986 album and the music to which it led. The “King Of America” songs are expected to be heard in the mid-show interlude, along with songs written as long ago as 1975 and even some of those “pretty ballads” that Costello has promised.
02-19 Easton, PA – State Theatre Center for the Arts
02-21 Red Bank, NJ – Count Basie Center for the Arts
02-22 Wilmington, DE – The Grand Opera House
02-24 Montclair, NJ – Wellmont Theater
02-25 Ithaca, NY – State Theatre of Ithaca
02-27 Port Chester, NY – The Capitol Theatre
03-01 Beverly, MA – The Cabot
03-02 Portsmouth, NH – The Music Hall
03-04 Woodstock, NY – Bearsville Theater
03-05 Woodstock, NY – Bearsville Theater
03-07 Buffalo, NY – UB Center for the Arts (Mainstage Theatre)
03-08 Ann Arbor, Michigan – Michigan Theater
03-11 Chicago, IL – Park West
03-12 Chicago, IL – Park West
03-14 Chicago, IL – Park West
06-12 Seattle, WA – Woodland Park Zoo Amphitheatre
06-13 Portland, OR – Keller Auditorium
06-15 Reno, NV – TBA
06-17 San Francisco, CA – The Masonic
06-19 Wheatland, CA – Hard Rock Live Sacramento
06-21 Los Angeles, CA – Orpheum
06-24 San Diego – Humphreys Concerts by the Bay
06-26 Las Vegas, NV – Pearl Concert Theater @ Palms Casino Resort
06-28 Beaver Creek, CO – Vilar Performing Arts Center
06-29 Denver, CO – Bellco Theatre
07-01 Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theater
07-03 Chesterfield, MO – The Factory
07-05 Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
07-07 Greenville, SC – The Peace Center Concert Hall
07-09 St. Petersburg, FL – Duke Energy Center for the Arts
07-10 Fort Myers, FL – Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall
07-12 Miami Beach, FL – Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theatre
