Eels live review - Brighton Dome March 2008
Eels gig review from the 2008 tour “An evening with Eels”, this concert was at the Brighton Dome on March 2nd 2008.
If you don’t already know, Eels are Mark Oliver Everett (E) and an assortment of various musicians. Every time Eels tour there is a different style and line up to the last tour. This is the third time I’ve seen them in as many years, at the Royal Albert Hall on the Eels with strings tour E played with a string quartet and was fully acoustic, the Eels no strings attached tour saw them as a five piece heavy rock band with multiple guitarists and a dancing security guard. Tonight Eels were simply E and The Chet, a regular member of the the Eels live line up.
The evening was billed as An evening with Eels, and started with a full 50 min film recently shown on the BBC called “Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives” which follows E as he learns about his father, Hugh Everett, a famous scientist who came up with the theory of parallel universes. He died when E was a teenager, and this and other memories are discussed in the film which is both interesting from a science point of view, and for anyone wanting to know more about E himself.
After the film, E then came onstage and played songs from all his albums in typically original style, helped out by “The Chet”. There was also readings from his new book, Things the grandchildren should know. All in all we really did get to finally meet the Eels.
The ratings
Performance
A truly outstanding performance was witnessed tonight, both E and The Chet played a host of instruments including acoustic and electric guitar, keyboards, drums and the electric saw as favoured by Mercury Rev. During one track - Flyswatter - E actually swaps places with The Chet who is drumming, whilst still drumming continuously, and they don’t even miss a beat! Watch this video to see the same feat performed at their Manchester date:
(Flyswatter + Bus Stop Boxer)
As if that wasn’t enough, later in the performance, one of the drums becomes loose and the sound technician has to go in there and try to fix it whilst E is bashing away narrowly missing them at every stroke. Well played!
The styles tonight vary greatly too, these two can make quite a sound and as well as a Led Zepplin cover we are treated to some rocking versions of some of the old classics from the earlier albums, and some quieter more subdued versions of tracks from Blinking Lights… This creates a perfect balance and ensures no one style overwhelms.
5/5
Sound quality
Since this is the Brighton Dome - which was built for classical music, like the Albert Hall, the sound is always going to be hard to control. Luckily the set features at most two instruments and E’s voice, and whilst they do echo and resonate a little strongly, it really works with this set up. E sounds amazing in this place, his voice cutting through the instruments to become the dominate feature. This results in an almost acappela sound at times, and makes for a very moving and unique set.
4/5
On stage banter
Whilst E doesn’t talk between every song like some artists, and indeed rarely talks at all at most of his live performances, he is known for some funny set pieces, and tonight is no exception. As well as talking to a mystery booming voice telling him “this is his life” (Aspel - could it be?) and that “kid, you did well”, he spends a few minutes reading out reviews and fan mail. This video captured that along with some more music.
(I like birds, the fan letters and media reviews chat and Jeannies Diary)
This provided a nice amusing interlude, but it was clear that this was a joky element, with E portraying himself as a caricature, the needy and deluded rock star. If you read his book, you get a picture of the real person, and to be fair, its unlikely he would ever reveal himself to anyone in person, never mind on stage. Perhaps this is why The Chet is the one to read a couple of passages from his book, rather than E himself.
4/5
The audience
By far the worst element of tonights performance was the audience. On the whole a pleasant group, with ages ranging from 7 to 70, there were a few less pleasant in the audience. I say a few, I mean one. As E started to talk, a few people started shouting stuff, most of which was very complementary. One person though decided to shout out “Do you play any music” to which some shouted “Shut up”. Not enough for this individual, when The Chet started reading from E’s book he shouted out “This is shit!”. Then a number of people expressed their discontent and he shut up. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, and assume he has severe learning disabilities, and was being taken out for the evening by a thoughtful carer. Or perhaps he has Tourettes. Still, well done to the others for speaking up.
Anyway, rant over, that lost me my concentration for a while, and coupled with someone next to me continually taking photos and forcing a bright light into my eyes, the audience were seriously affecting my enjoyment of tonight’s performance. Someone (from a band) said to me this weekend, a band can’t help the audience, so how can that effect the performance, I’m afraid to say, a band alone does not a gig make.
3/5
Overall
Despite the odd disturbance, this was an unique evening full of great songs and showmanship. A much more intimate way to see Eels than perhaps ever before, and although we didn’t really meet the real E, we came as close as anyone watching him on stage probably ever will.
4/5
Buy Eels
Things the grandchildren should know is E’s excellent autobiography, for once a rock star who doesn’t need a ghost writer! Its a fascinating insight into a life which included growing up as a troubled teen, the tragic deaths of all his family, witnessing a plane crash next to his house, the years spent trying to make it big in LA and his eventual success. It turned a long train journey from Wales into something far more interesting for me!
Meet The Eels is a simple greatest hits album, an ideal place to start if your not already a fan, but if you are try…
..Useless Trinkets, a double album full of unusual live versions of classic tracks, weird remixes and some B-sides.
More Eels
The user who added the videos of Eels featured has more footage here.
Here’s a clip of the film - Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives
Eels have an official youtube channel with lots of live performances and videos
The Eels myspace lists all live dates and claims to have a song of the day each day
The official Eels site is full of all kinds of things including news, links to fan sites, an agony uncle page, lyrics and a store.
Sounds like a good night. I love E. I saw them at the Albert Hall last year and I too had a audience disturbance: incessant chat during songs mostly. This was made worse by most of the chat being about how much they loved their music. Listen to it then!
I was there and being a mere teenager, I felt a little too young to be there!
The drumming switch was amazing and I loved the show overall.
My brother overplayed their albums before we went, so much so that I got a little fed up of the band. However now I have seen them, their songs could never be overplayed.
Oh the constant flash photography was ridiculous! There were signs asking them not to use flashes!
But I have to say it was a fantastic eveing, I am totally converted!
On May 1st, 2008 at 10:10 pm, Fête, vacances et musique - Mind Emergence said
[...] de mon concert de Eels, mais c’est passé maintenant. Par contre, j’ai trouvé ce compte-rendu très fidèle à ce que j’ai ressenti (et tu peux voir les vidéos des passages superbes, [...]
ABOSLUTELY LOVED THE CONCERT AND SO DID MY DAUGHTER(13) MY 4TH TIME TO SEE THEM AND THEY NEVER DISSAPOINT! NEVER THE SAME, HOW MANY BANDS CAN SAY THAT? WILL BE THERE NEXT TIME , LONG LIVE MR.E!!!!