Elvis, stripped down and brilliant
James Reckling | Roanoke, Va USA | 03/29/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Unsurprisingly these songs sound fantastic stripped down to guitar and piano (Pete Thomas plays drums on a few cuts). Only 30,000 of these were pressed ... 5 eps from 5 different concerts that the duo played in 1996. Your EC collection is incomplete without this one!"
Enjoyable, but not worth $50-$100
Count Istvan Telecky | 07/12/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Picked up this somewhat hard to find live collection from a used-like-new vendor on Amazon for under $30...an excellent value. It's surprisingly well produced for the most part, though I do find myself tweaking the volume control occasionally.
Only some narrowness of song selection and a couple of 'clunkers' keep this from 5 stars. 'All This Useless Beauty' tunes are the centerpiece. If you don't like ATUB, you'll be wasting your money here.
'It's Time', 'Man Out of Time', 'You Bowed Down', 'Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes' and 'I Want to Vanish' are among the best cuts. However, the versions here of 'Little Atoms' and 'All This Useless Beauty' far exceed their studio-brothers and are the real finds for Costello completists looking to embellish their desert island best-of collections."
Useless Beauty and Oldies
Blackberry Tea | Kansas | 10/23/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Excellent stuff, better than I expected. They play almost all of Useless Beauty (a favorite of mine) and a bunch of older tunes. The commentary between tracks is funny and insightful. Grab this if you can find it!"