Vaccine-requiring Elvis Costello abruptly switches Mystic Lake gig for First Ave

It took him 44 years and one worldwide pandemic to get around to it, but Elvis Costello will finally play First Avenue for the first time on Nov. 4 after canceling his concert that same night at Mystic Lake Casino.

The punk-era British songwriting hero and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has been requiring proof of vaccine or negative test results at all his concerts on a fall U.S. tour with his band the Imposters. Mystic Lake has resisted making such requirements at its events. No one is saying if that's the reason for the change in venues, but you probably don't need to keep watching the detectives to come to that conclusion.

All tickets for the Mystic Lake show will be automatically refunded. New tickets for the First Ave performance go on sale Thursday at noon for $60 via AXS.com.

Costello, 67, first toured America in 1977, when First Avenue was in its disco phase as Uncle Sam's. He thus instead played Jay's Longhorn Bar his first time in Minneapolis. By the time First Ave became more of a rock club in late-1979 (changing its name to just Sam's), he had already graduated to bigger rooms.

First Avenue and its sister venues became the first significant performance spaces in Minnesota to implement a vaccine or negative-test requirement for all its shows starting back in mid-August.

Mystic Lake would not let the Jonas Brothers make the same requirements for their amphitheater concert last month. Casino representatives — who did not yet respond to a request for comment regarding Costello — said at the time that the Jonas Brothers' policies "do not align with our current protocols, developed under the guidance of SMSC [Shakopee-Mdewakanton Sioux Community] Tribal Public Health."