Coming on stage in a gangsta bandana, wrap-around shades, and what looked like Saddam Hussein’s beard, Mr E was giving little away. There was no opening gambit, nor any indication of what direction the evening was going. Some had said the Scotland concerts hadn’t been so great. I heard one girl say that if Eels concerts had personalities they’d be as capricious as the fragile moods of the man simply known as E. But E stood there saying nothing.
Of course on record it’s been a different story. Cathartic, contrary and finally redemptive, Eels year-long concept trilogy came to its conclusion last week, with the sanguine Tomorrow Morning. But it was tonight that the sold-out crowd of mainly thirtysomething, well-educated males was interested in. So, after a three year hiatus from touring, what sort of form was E on? With the last album so good, I was perversely half expecting the worst. But it turned out that Mark Oliver Everett and his band – The Chet, Koool G Murder, P-Boo and Knuckles - were on the form of their lives.
In many ways this tour, the first since 2007, is hugely ambitious. With a set drawing largely on tracks from the concept trilogy, it not only showcases three albums, but also tries to convey their various theses on misdirected youth (Hombre Lobo, the “wolf man”), the disappointment of experience (End Times – the “divorce album”), and the redemption achieved when you’ve got over both the folly and anger of youth, and the bitterness of disillusionment (Tomorrow Morning). Played intensely at home thinking about ex-girlfriends, the three albums make for very therapeutic listening. But in a sticky O2 Academy in Brixton?
But over 27 songs, over almost two hours, with no talk between songs, the songs did all the talking. From the outset when E appeared in his fugitive garb and, standing alone, played “Daisies of the Galaxy”, a feeling of intimacy took over the room. He may have made little eye contact but the PA carried the voice to every corner of the venue. And when The Chet appeared alongside him for “3 Speed”, the venue that held almost 5000 might as well have had 50. It is the most extraordinary song - the world as imagined through E’s poor, dead, mentally troubled sister - and it’s a song that had no doubt elicited a tear from everyone in the room at some point in their lives.
From hereon after we were into either songs from the trilogy, or songs or covers that evoked the trilogy. There was rawness, brutality, despair, regret, optimism and a great deal of excitement. Visually the band looked great. Indeed they looked like they could be playing at the Gates of Hades or at the end of time itself; all beards and hats and sunglasses and a sound that could wake the undead. But there was nothing else visual on stage. It was a very focussed experience. And there was always a danger that it could become a very two-speed experience. Thrashy grunge alternating with delicate naivety. But this was avoided by the choice of songs, by the playfulness of some of the covers and rearrangements, by the beauty of the simple songs and until the effect eventually wore off, by the sheer excitement of hearing this band rock out. In songs like "Prizefighter", or the cover of The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Summer in the City”, the rhythm section of Murder and Knuckles were able to generate excitement from deep in the bones to the tips of the hair.
And as for E, he just didn’t let up for two hours. He may not have told us jokes and anecdotes but he made us smile with musical jokes, like the punk versions of “My Beloved Monster”, or “I like Birds”, or the recasting of “Mr E’s Beautiful Blues” to the melody of “Twist and Shout”. For some the highlight of the evening seemed to be the rueful “In My Younger Days”, in which E spoke to the heartbroken in the room: “I don’t need misery to teach me what I ought to be/ I just want you back”, but for most it was the shamanistic “Fresh Blood”, and “Dog-Faced Boy” with their primal, raw anger that really struck a chord. And one truly unexpected highlight was the fast, Latin-jazz cover of Gershwin’s "Summertime", which demonstrated a lightness and sophistication not often necessarily associated with E or the band.
The three encores of the evening belonged to the new album. We’d had the anger, we’d had the despair. And now there was rebirth and new love. “I Like the Way this is Going”, gave way to “That’s Not Her Way”, to “Baby Loves me” to “Oh so Lovely”. “Oh-so-lovely/ Lord above me/ I feel my heart changin' in mysterious new ways....Now how can I tell you how grateful I am?”
It was hard to tell how grateful the crowd had been. The atmosphere had been subdued. They almost didn’t call the band back for the third encore. But every time I looked around, they weren’t disinterested. They were rapt. There was so much concentration and intense appreciation, it seemed that maybe they’d forgotten to shout and whistle. There was a whole lot going on in that room. A whole lot of emotion. But maybe E had set the tone for the evening. No-one was giving much away.
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