Eels with Strings - Royal Albert Hall, London
Caught "most" of the fantastic Eels with Strings show at the astounding Royal Albert Hall. I say most because, despite booking the tickets months in advance, I got called away for work and didn't get to the show until part-way through. Still I was pretty happy because I didn't think I'd get there at all!
Kim took Brad, another Melb expat living in London, but I ended up going straight from the airport and caught the end of the main set and all the
encores.
Someone was leaving and they gave me their ticket so I even got in for free! Show was fantastic - I came in during a lengthy 'Novocaine For The Soul' and caught the rest of the main set: 'Losing Streak' and 'Climbing To The Moon' - plus all 3 encores. The first two were pretty standard - and I loved the sting version of 'Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)' and 'Dog Faced Boy'.
But the best was the third encore - after the houselights go up and the music comes on. I'd heard they did something strange at the end but 80% of the crowd had left. The people that remained keep clapping and cheering, then this roadie comes on and announces "ladies and gentlemen.... the eels have left the building...." [big boos from crowd]... roadie continues "...just kidding". Then the band comes back on, all dressed in their pyjamas and played a cover of Prince's 'I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man' and an instrumental version of 'Mr E's Beautiful Blues'.
I saw The Eels once in Hollywood on their "Tour Of Duty" tour in 2003 for "Souljacker" and it was one of the best rock shows I've seen. So I wasn't entirely convinced on the with strings set-up - but I thought it sounded great. Gave an opportunity to feature some of their quieter songs, and the little instrumental snippets sprinkled through-out their last studio album "Blinking Lights". It also gave E the chance to play the "grouchy front man" smoking cigars and generally seeming pretty surly. There's now a CD and DVD of the same tour - recording at New York Town Hall - which I'd heartily recomend checking out.
Kim took Brad, another Melb expat living in London, but I ended up going straight from the airport and caught the end of the main set and all the
encores.Someone was leaving and they gave me their ticket so I even got in for free! Show was fantastic - I came in during a lengthy 'Novocaine For The Soul' and caught the rest of the main set: 'Losing Streak' and 'Climbing To The Moon' - plus all 3 encores. The first two were pretty standard - and I loved the sting version of 'Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)' and 'Dog Faced Boy'.
But the best was the third encore - after the houselights go up and the music comes on. I'd heard they did something strange at the end but 80% of the crowd had left. The people that remained keep clapping and cheering, then this roadie comes on and announces "ladies and gentlemen.... the eels have left the building...." [big boos from crowd]... roadie continues "...just kidding". Then the band comes back on, all dressed in their pyjamas and played a cover of Prince's 'I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man' and an instrumental version of 'Mr E's Beautiful Blues'.
I saw The Eels once in Hollywood on their "Tour Of Duty" tour in 2003 for "Souljacker" and it was one of the best rock shows I've seen. So I wasn't entirely convinced on the with strings set-up - but I thought it sounded great. Gave an opportunity to feature some of their quieter songs, and the little instrumental snippets sprinkled through-out their last studio album "Blinking Lights". It also gave E the chance to play the "grouchy front man" smoking cigars and generally seeming pretty surly. There's now a CD and DVD of the same tour - recording at New York Town Hall - which I'd heartily recomend checking out.
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