The Eels – Astoria London

It seems only a few months ago that I saw The Eels at The Royal Albert Hall on their Eels with Strings tour – in fact it was October last year. That said – I’m not sure even a nine month absence was enough to prepare fans for the dramatic difference between this new show and the previous Eels visit.
Kicking off at 8:15pm with squalling feedback that led into ‘The Other Shoe’ and ‘Old Shit/New Shit’ – the current incarnation of The Eels is a lean three-piece (well-technically a four-piece with onstage bouncer “Crazy Al” assisting with occasional back-up vocals and instrumentation - but more on that later) of two guitars and drums focusing on the more rock material from their extensive back-catalog.
If calling the tour “No Strings Attached” wasn’t enough to highlight the difference between this and previous shows – the band issue a musical statement of intent with a cover of Peaches (featuring Iggy Pop) single ‘Rock Show’ – sample lyrics: “You came to see a rockshow/A big gigantic cock show” and “You came to see a rock show/This isn't a fuckin' talk show”.
Singer/songwriter E – took this last verse seriously, not saying a thing to the crowd all night. Instead all onstage introductions and between song quips where issued by the looming figure of bearded and bald security guy Crazy Al (AKA Alan Hunter – who keen eyed fans, and Kimbo, recognized as the double-bassist for the previous tours With Strings line-up). Al’s introductions ranged from the sincere (“This is dedicated to our favorite band in the universe…. Smoosh” – who supported earlier and rejoined the band for encores) to the ridiculous (“I know the deal when I see it….. this is the deal!”).
In fact – apart from the band dressing in a confusing mix of military uniforms: drummer Derek “Knuckles” Brown was in full American Civil War outfit, guitarist Chet “The Chet” Lyster went with standard baggy greens and a Che Grevara style hat, E on the other hand went with a Fifties-style aviator hat and glasses - most of the onstage showmanship came from Crazy Al. This included some Elvis style karate-dancing, employing props like a phone for ‘The Other Shoe’ and lifting weights during another. He still found time to ensure E’s personal security – at one stage during a particularly rawkus solo – shooing guitarist The Chet back to his side of the stage so he didn’t get too close to E.
Musically the show most reminded me of the 2003 Tour Of Duty for the guitar-heavy “Shootenanny” record. Employing the twin-guitar approach for the first half-dozen or so songs – including a cover of Willie Dixon’s ‘Crazy Love’ (Crazy Al’s theme tune?), and a few non-LP rarities like ‘Eyes Down’ from the “Holes” film soundtrack, and b-side ‘After The Operation’.
It was when E switched to keyboards that things really came together for me – highlight was a slower-tempo reading of ‘Last Stop: This Town’, a great cover of Tom Wait’s ‘Jesus Gonna Be Here’ with The Chet on lead vocals, and ‘Dirty Girl’. A few songs from their 1996 debut album “Beautiful Freak” also got an airing – ‘Rags To Rags’, a countrified ‘My Beloved Monster’ and a lengthy ‘Not Ready Yet’ that seemed to run for 10-15 mins – including a mid-song break where E went off-stage and Crazy Al continued his guitar-playing for him.
Not surprisingly, it was the material from the guitar-heavy “Souljacker” album - ‘Souljacker Pt1’ and ‘Dog Faced Boy’ - that worked best when E returned to second guitar.
The main set closed on an odd-note with show-tune style covers of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins ‘I Put A Spell On You’ and Frank Sinatra’s ‘That’s Life’.
The band quickly returned for a two song encore of ‘Cancer For The Cure’ and a hyper-paced ‘I Like Birds’. The two girls in Smoosh ran on-stage mid-song like hysterical Beatles fans complete with Crazy Al chasing (but strangely never catching) them. The Smoosh girls assisted on backing vocals, and it was a great sight to see Crazy Al having to lift them to the microphone so they could call out “birds” for the ‘I Like Birds’ one word chorus.
With that the band went offstage and the houselights went up – however word of The Eels encore trickery has clearly spread, and only about a third of the crowd left. A fairly good clue that the band would return was that the PA was playing a muzak version of The Eels ‘Saturday Morning’ – which they then returned to play with the houselights on.
Unfortunately this has become something of a boy-who-cried-wolf situation, because when the band did leave the stage and the PA music came on – most of the crowd refused to go until 10-15 minutes later when the venue security started clearing people away.
As always a fantastic – andt very different - show from a fantastic and unpredictable band. You have to give E some kudos – he can write great songs and produce great records, but he loves to buck conventions and always tries to come out with something a little different – unexpected encore, an all-strings tour, onstage bouncer, rearrangements of his best-known songs, crazy cover versions – to push the boundaries of what is expected from a live concert. Good on him.
Thanks to www.eels.nl for the photos.

Eugene Kelly & Francis McKee - London Luminaire

First up – how good is the Luminaire? A Retro looking venue with a great stage set-up that has easy viewing from most of the room – even the couches in the corner! Good sounding PA. The staff seems friendly and it’s easy to get a drink. Best of all – they have signs pinned up around the place advising noisy punters that people didn’t pay to hear them yabber so shut up! No wonder Time Out gave it Live Venue of the Year in 2005/2006. Good choice.

Anyway – after navigating our way to deepest darkest Kilburn – arrived at The Luminaire about 10 minutes before Eugene Kelly came on for a half hour solo set.

Francis later advised that they’d gotten Eugene off his deathbed to play tonight – but he certainly sounded in good voice. Playing mostly material from his highly underrated 2005 ‘Man Alive’ album – kicking off with “You’re Having My Sex” (which he said was written about Robbie Williams but could now be applied to The Artic Monkeys) and including a fantastic harmonica-rich version of “Older Faster”. I was pretty happy he delved back into some Eugenenius material with “River Clyde Song” from their second album ‘Mary Queen of Scots’.

Francis Kelly came on about 15 mins later accompanied by cello, acoustic guitar/accordion, and her sister Marie on harmony/backing vocals. Playing mostly material from her just released solo album ‘Sunny Moon’ (all but one song – which was from her previous, post-Vaselines band Suckle) I still find Francis something of an acquired taste. At the right time – it can be exactly what you want to hear, but other times it can be a little one-dimensional. For those not familiar with her – the closest comparison I can come up with is Nico on the early Velvet Underground stuff.

Anyway – after a reasonably short set – Francis called Eugene back to the stage “for the reason you’ve all come tonight” a Vaselines reunion.

In the spirit of The Vaselines they confessed to being incredibly under-rehearsed – although “Molly’s Lips” (done in the original, much slower tempo) sounded great. The Divine cover “You Think You’re a Man” also sounded great, but “The Day I Was A Horse” was suitably shambolic. Highlight for me was a cello-rich “Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam” and the show-closing “Son Of A Gun”.

Guns N Roses - Hammersmith Apollo

In a typically chaotic fashion – Guns N Roses finally hit the stage 90 minutes after their shitty metal support band had finished. During what seemed like the longest hours and a half on earth rumours starting circulating through the crowd that the band was a no-show, that the venue curfew was midnight so the band would only have an hour to play. The crowd was getting pretty hostile and booing every new song that started on the backing tape.

Around 10:45pm the band hit the stage and all was forgiven as the opening riff to ‘Weclome to The Jungle’ is blasted out.

Despite rumours to the contrary (one UK paper describing him as a cross between Mick Hucknell from Simply Red and Chucky from Child Play) Axl is looking surprisingly fit and certainly in good form – doing the old shuffle dance of old, and a new twirling move I dubbed “swinging the lasso”. He’s certainly in fine voice – giving note perfect renditions of classic hits like ‘Sweet Child O Mine’, ‘You Could Be Mine’ and ‘Mr Brownstone’.

The latest version of Guns N Roses that Axl has assemble around himself played great – but the looked more like a group of cartoon superheroes than a hard rock act!

Guitarist Robin Finck (who joined the band in 1997 from Nine Inch Nails) is probably the worst offender – dressing like some kind of magical wizard in a black tunic and tights, with knee high red shoes. He even drew attention to himself with continual strange high-kicking action during each solo.

Newest guitarist Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal was wearing what looked like a purple Fez. He did redeem himself during his guitar solo however, revealing the roots of his nickname by playing a guitar shaped like a giant foot, that flapped bumblebee wings as he solo’d.

Richard Fortus on rhythm guitar was also a bit of a shocker. Dressed like a cartoon punk rocker – all leather jacket and converse high-tops – although I give him some leeway due to cred developed from his time in The Psychadelic Furs and Love Spit Love.

On a similar note Tommy Stinson was great on bass. He didn’t seem to overplay and, unlike the other members of this cartoon army, he an Axl seem to have a genuine rapport– engaging in some synchronised jumping at one point, and he seemed to get the most heartfelt of the band introductions (and most formal “Thomas Eugene Stinson”). Of course as a life-long Replacements fan the dude could have played in a nappy and I’d still forgive him.

The crowd was pretty cool – I spotted Brian May and Roger Taylor from Queen sitting a few rows ahead of us (in fact they conspicuously took their seats a few mere moments before the band came on, suggesting they were somehow complicit in the 90 minute delay – backstage jam or dinner with Queen I suspect?). Kimbo also spotted Elle McPherson walking in – well truthfully she spotted a supermodel walking in, and we later read it was Elle.

The special effects we’re fantastic – not only big big bursts of smoke and flame – but bloody loud as well. They also had some pretty cool video footage projected on giant screens behind the stage.

Apart from a slew of classics – the band did play a few news songs from the decade in the making “Chinese Democracy” – ‘Madagascar’ I was familiar with from the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards performance (highlight being the after gig interview with Axl where he claims the new album will be out “in a few months”) and I’d heard the MP3s of ‘The Blues’ and ‘IRS’.

Surprisingly the band also embraced their covers with great versions of Bob Dylan’s ‘Knocking On Heaven’s Door’ (including a great Axl impression from a crowd member when Axl held the mic out to the audience) and Wing’s ‘Live and Let Die’.

Because of the massive delay in starting we had to leave during the lengthy ‘November Rain’ in order to catch the last tube home. But apparently Sebastian Bach from Skid Row (who I’ve been enjoying emmensly in the VH1 realty show “Supergroup”) came on to duet on ‘My Michelle’ and we missed the traditional show-closer ‘Paradise City’.

Full setlist:
'Welcome To The Jungle'
'It's So Easy'
'Mr Brownstone'
'Live And Let Die'
'Sweet Child O' Mine'
'Madagascar'
'Better'
'You Could Be Mine'
'Knockin' On Heaven's Door'
'The Blues'
'IRS'
'Outta Get Me'
'November Rain'
'My Michelle' (with Sebastian Bach)
'Patience'
'Night Train'
'Paradise City'