If the idea of Elvis Costello walking into a record store sounds a little bit like a dodo flying into a dinosaur, well, it's easy to see why. But that clearly was not the case at noon today when Costello performed a 40-minute set San Francisco's Amoeba Records to a packed house of 1,000 potential record buyers.

Costello and several accompanists (including the formidable singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale) ran through a variety of tunes from his cache -- even reaching as far back as 1977's 'Blame it on Cain' -- although, of course, he focused on his new album 'Secret, Profane & Sugarcane,' which he was there to promote.

Midway through the set, Costello announced that he was going to treat the crowd to a brand new song, 'Condemned Man,' which he plans to record for his next album. "You have to come to a record store to hear this one," joked Costello. "That's a good reason to go to Amoeba Records -- you can walk in and hear a song you never heard before."

Costello did a quick autograph signing before catching a flight to LA for his second "in-store" in the same day. He's scheduled to perform at Amoeba Records in Hollywood tonight at 8 PM PST (You can watch the live stream here).

Amoeba bills itself as "the world's largest independent record store" and the one in San Francisco, located in the famous Haight-Ashbury district, is housed in an old bowling alley. With 1,000 fans lining the aisles and leaning over bins, we haven't seen this many people in a record store since before Christmas -- the year iPods were first released.