Elvis Costello — Live At The El Mocambo

This live album, recorded in 1978 at the Toronto venue, was originally a much sought-after bootleg that was first released as a promotional disc. It was later released properly in 1993 as part of the 2 ½ Years box set and has now been reissued.

While the sound quality isn't great and doesn't seem to have been improved, that doesn't really matter. What's important is that Costello and The Attractions play an absolutely blistering 49-minute set that's packed full of goodies from 1977's My Aim Is True and 1978's This Year's Model.

Costello's showmanship and sense of humour come across nicely throughout the recording. One of the complaints when this album was released in 1993 was that much of the song banter had been cut out. This included Costello announcing he and The Attractions had been sent to Canada from England to "ask for the country back." That's been put back in and it only adds to the set, making this pretty much a classic live disc.

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