I must admit that of all the reviews I’ve done in Betty’s online career to date this is the one I am most in trepidation of…
Yes, I have seen Eels before (a full-on romp through 4 or 5 songs in a late running TITP tent slot around 5 years ago); yes I own some of their records, and yes I am positively disposed to Mr E. However, I just have a horrible feeling that some Eels fans will be spitting blood if I slag off anything, shitting bricks if I get a factual detail wrong and wanting my pretty little head on a block if I don’t “get” what Eels is about – I may be wrong but I think they attract more potentially psychopathic followers than your average left-field, post-indie, semi-ironic, quirky, genre-shifting, iconoclastic little beat combo…
but maybe I worry too much.
Taking the stage at a probably 90% full Academy, this is a “career spanning” set, and in front of a widely aged audience, Mr E takes the stage in a beard/bandana/shades/white suit combination rarely attempted around these parts. The voice is husky but clear; the repartee nil until at least midway through the set.
By song three, the entire ensemble is on stage, the band look apparently being the result of some kind of beard-related wager, in a field of three with Grinderman and ZZ Top as the main competitors.
Drums, bass and three guitars (including Mr E that is), they have the potential for some serious wigouts and do deliver these at some pace. They pack in, along with a smattering of covers and an “introducing the band” midsection complete with drummer vocal and solo (‘Knuckles Song’, I think), a fair few tracks from the nine (and counting) albums of output since 1996.
Highlights for me are the in your face ‘Souljacker Part 1’, ‘Dog-faced Boy’, the more menacing ‘Fresh Blood’, the regretful ‘The Look You Gave that Guy’, and several of the more mournful country-tinged extracts from the newish End Times collection and even newer, i.e. just released that day, Tomorrow Morning.
The band (pretty much the usual mainstays, including “Kool G Murder” aka Ginger Beard, on bass) provides credible firepower and understated backing as appropriate. Mr E is a charismatic presence on stage although at time eccentric, the songs are simple yet effective with good tunes, melody and ideas, and yet why as I listen to this am a feeling a bit detached… well, I think; here’s why…
Is the look and the persona the only way to let the heavy shit come out and be expressed, is it simply a way of distinguishing himself, getting himself noticed or is he simple toying with the preconceptions of what a rock star and live act should be? I could ask the same questions of, for example Nick Cave, Luke Haines (don’t get me started), even Bob Dylan for that matter. And does the surface schtick really matter if the music itself sounds good?
After emergence on the UK scene via a couple of chart singles (‘Novocaine’ and ‘Susan’s House’) in ’96, the story of Mr E’s subsequent biographical details and his attempts to come to terms with it in his work have been well documented (and I won’t dwell on them here, there are plenty of internet sources). The fact remains however that listening to individual songs could give people vastly varying impressions of what was actually going on – as an Eels consumer, your predicted “also likes” could be Motorhead, Kenny Rodgers, The Afghan Whigs, Stereolab…
So is this good? Well probably, yes. For an artist to get thus far into his career and not be afraid of taking another about turn and another one is certainly bold. The choice of cover versions here is also telling, obviously there is a bit of a track record here with previous outings of ‘Get Ur Freak On’ and unexpected obscurities. Tonight it’s ‘Summer in the City’, a fairly faithful rendition, a guitar taking the place of the famous keyboard riff (Lovin Spoonful, fact fans, Betty remembers it from her youth, so probably the 70s). Then it’s ‘Mr E’s Beautiful Blues’ via a ‘Twist and Shout’medley which manages to toss off another couple of Eels early favourites (‘Novocaine’ at least) in the verses, also a quite frankly deranged mariachi version of ‘Summertime’ (and the cotton is high etc, previously covered by Fun Boy Three and pretty much everyone else) which even by Eels standards is fairly OTT.
The evening ends with two or possibly three encores, Mr E doing the last one himself, and all over by 10.30 and some accusations of too short a set – still, the audience got a lot of riffage, angst and downright weirdness for their money and Betty got some interesting questions to ponder, so all in all everyone left happy.
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