Simple curiosity had me planning to see Kevin Costner and his band, Modern West, Friday night at House of Blues inside the Showboat. After all, how many times does one get to see an honest-to-God movie superstar warbling in the flesh?

But because the Costner gig was not set to begin until 10-ish, I was able to make it a doubleheader by catching most of the wondrous Tom Jones' 9 p.m. set next door at the Taj Mahal.

"Wondrous" is but one adjective that perfectly fits the Welsh pop legend. "Amazing" is another. That's because at age 68, the guy still has it. Friday night, he sounded great, his throaty baritone unfailingly nailing a repertoire that covered a mind-boggling number of styles and genres, from R&B (Eddie Floyd's "Raise Your Hand") to country (George Jones' "He Stopped Loving her Today") to swing/big band ("Fly Me To the Moon," "That Old Black Magic") to blues ( "I Only Wanna Get Me Some") to classic-rock (Van Morrison's "Cry For Home").

And of course, he had many women in the audience (including a booty-shaking, gray-haired senior sitting a few feet away from me) swooning with his own '60s signatures, including "Delilah," "What's New Pussycat?" and "I'll Never Fall in Love Again."

Quite a show, from quite a showman...

Then it was on to HOB for Costner's surprisingly competent set.

Backed by a six-piece band that featured three guitarists and a fiddle player, Costner (who also strummed a six-string acoustic) delighted a nice-size, but hardly packed, audience with a set of mostly original tunes that can best be described as Tom Petty meets John Mellencamp at a southern honky-tonk.

Overall, Costner's material is somewhat one-dimensional (a lot of major-chord rock riffs and pump-your-fist choruses), and his voice lacks range. But the songs were rendered with plenty of enthusiasm and technical proficiencey, including a "bitchin'" (a word Costner used to describe the audience) garage-bandy version of "Mr. Tambourine Man").

And it was nice that the movie star spoke regularly to the crowd (mostly to introduce the songs).

In all, a pretty cool evening of sounds from two pop-culture titans. 

YOU BETTER LOOK SHARP: That's because British singer-songwriter Joe Jackson (like Jones, quite the musical chameleon), is making his Atlantic City debut Nov. 8 at the Taj. Tickets go on sale Friday. Go to www.brepresents.com for more info.

GIVE A HOOT: And returning to Borgata's Music Box are Philly's own The Hooters, who'll be at the Big B Aug. 30. Tickets are on sale now and can be had by calling (866) 900-4849, or by visiting www.theborgata.com.

A WARM WELCOME: That's what I've mostly received so far from some who read my initial CasiNOTES posting the other day...NOT!

But hey--better to be hated than ignored, right?

Note to George Tomezsko: Yo George! Assuming you're who I think you are, nice to hear from you after all these decades!