Elvis Costello [ tickets ], sporting a porn-star mustache and shades along with a beaming smile, performed at two California record stores in a single day Monday (6/22) to celebrate last week's release of "Secret, Profane and Sugarcane." The L.A. concert--which, like the San Francisco show, was held in an Amoeba Records store--went a considerable way toward demonstrating than an all-acoustic Costello show does not mean he is growing softer as he ages.

The 55-minute set featured 11 songs, six of them from the new disc, two covers (The Grateful Dead's "Friend of the Devil" and Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away") and two new numbers that reached for the merciless tone of classic Costello. The new album, produced by T Bone Burnett, is rich in fiddles, mandolins and tempos associated with twang, but Costello mixed up the repertoire to sufficiently indicate that his upcoming tour will be a varied affair that touches on various phases of his 33-year career. (Costello's currently confirmed North American itinerary is below.)

Inclusion of "Blame It On Cain" tapped the venomous vein that Costello continues to reach for on new material. One tune, a relentlessly dark ballad, concerns a prisoner's final hours before he is put to death; a second unreleased number, titled "Five Small Words" for now, explores the pain of a break-up with a string of five-word questions that begins with "don't you want me anymore?" With "Red Cotton's" look at slavery in the mix, the frothier tunes--"My All Time Doll" and "Sulphur to Sugarcane"--were downright comic relief, the latter tune being the sharpest geography-based number since "Rhode Island is Famous for You."

Costello's accompaniment--guitarist Jim Lauderdale and mandolinist Mike Compton--was smaller than the unit he will take on the road, and it is likely the arrangements will allow the sort of expert interplay that's featured prominently on the new Hear Music/Concord album. Compton had only one opportunity to stretch out--on "Friend of the Devil"--and Lauderdale's rich tenor was limited to background vocals.

On Aug. 17 in Saratoga, CA, Costello will resume his tour with the musicians who backed him in the studio for the new album. Dubbed The Sugarcanes, the lineup includes Lauderdale on guitar, Douglas on dobro, Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Compton on mandolin, Jeff Taylor on accordion and Dennis Crouch on double bass.

Costello also is scheduled to perform with Steve Nieve and The Utah Symphony Aug. 15 at Salt Lake City's Dear Valley Music Festival.