Monday, June 22, 2009

Elvis Costello's Two Record Stores in One Day Tour

Elvis Costello Playing Amoeba in San Francisco
(and being fully documented on video, camera phones, etc.)

A few hours ago I caught a live performance by Elvis Costello at Amoeba Records in San Francisco. It's a huge record store (the building used to be a bowling alley) and it was jam-packed with fans who were eager to catch one of Elvis's two free Amoeba shows today. After the show and "meet and greet" (they handed out 81 numbers to people who wanted to have items signed and it was a free for all after that) he will be jetting down south to play at the Los Angeles Amoeba store at 8pm. Along with being able to see an amazing set by a music legend, fans were also able to pick up limited edition posters commemorating the Amoeba shows (free with purchase of the new album Secret, Profane & Sugarcane).

As my friends and I looked out at the sea of faces in the store today (at 12 noon on a Monday), we talked about the beauty of in-store performances. It was great publicity for Elvis Costello's new record and a fantastic way to get music fans into a record store and spending money on physical music.

Additionally, tonight's show is going to stream live at 8pm and both sets will end up being archived on the Amoeba website. So, even if you missed it, you can catch full documentation.

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