Mark Everett - St James Church, Picadilly
Solo show / reading from Mark Everett from The Eels - to promote the release of his book 'Things The Grandchildren Should know'.
St James is an operating church in the middle of London which apparently operates as a music venue every now and then (Arcade Fire did a gig there last year).
Tonights show had the air of anticipation, plus a few celebs like Pete Townshend from The Who and Alex James from Blur, that made it feel like a bit of an event.
Coming on around 7:45pm - Mark Everett (or E as he's more commonly known) was dressed in his seemingly standard boiler-suit. Playing solo, E moved from eclectic guitar to piano for the 15-song set.
Starting with the great 'Grace Kelly Blues' (love that line about the kid at the mall working at hot-dog on a stick!), and a couple of new songs, 'Dirty Girl' and a great 'Ugly Love'.
As a book launch - it was expected that E would read from his book as part of the performance, however never one to do the obvious, he announced it would be too pretentious for him to read himself, so instead asked for volunteers from the audience to read. The first guy was a bit shabby - but subsequent readers were great, especially the girl who read a passage about E's sisters funeral and "guest star" Pete Townshend who did the final reading - a funny piece about E being stuck in a hippy retreat with all communication forbidden, and sneaking off to write lyrics for the then new song 'Souljacker Part 2' on a roll of toilet paper.
The format for the show was E would play a few songs, then another reading, then a few more songs and so forth. To his credit, E had clearly spent a bit of time selecting the passages to be read and matching them with related songs from the Eels extensive back catalog. Either literally such as 'Souljacker' following the story of it's writing, or 'Daises Of The Galaxy' following the story of his sisters funeral; to more thematic links like 'A Magic World' following the first reading about E's troubled youth.
Full Setlist:
Grace Kelly Blues
new song ("now I'm full of love")
Millcent Don't Blame Yourself
Dirty Girl
Ugly Love
*book reading
A Magic World
* book reading
3 Speed
Climbing To The Moon
I Like Birds
It's A Motherfucker
Flyswatter
Bus Stop Boxer
* book reading
Daisies Of The Galaxy
Somebody Loves You
* book reading
Souljacker Part II
encore:
Girl From The North Country
St James is an operating church in the middle of London which apparently operates as a music venue every now and then (Arcade Fire did a gig there last year).
Tonights show had the air of anticipation, plus a few celebs like Pete Townshend from The Who and Alex James from Blur, that made it feel like a bit of an event.
Coming on around 7:45pm - Mark Everett (or E as he's more commonly known) was dressed in his seemingly standard boiler-suit. Playing solo, E moved from eclectic guitar to piano for the 15-song set.
Starting with the great 'Grace Kelly Blues' (love that line about the kid at the mall working at hot-dog on a stick!), and a couple of new songs, 'Dirty Girl' and a great 'Ugly Love'.
As a book launch - it was expected that E would read from his book as part of the performance, however never one to do the obvious, he announced it would be too pretentious for him to read himself, so instead asked for volunteers from the audience to read. The first guy was a bit shabby - but subsequent readers were great, especially the girl who read a passage about E's sisters funeral and "guest star" Pete Townshend who did the final reading - a funny piece about E being stuck in a hippy retreat with all communication forbidden, and sneaking off to write lyrics for the then new song 'Souljacker Part 2' on a roll of toilet paper.
The format for the show was E would play a few songs, then another reading, then a few more songs and so forth. To his credit, E had clearly spent a bit of time selecting the passages to be read and matching them with related songs from the Eels extensive back catalog. Either literally such as 'Souljacker' following the story of it's writing, or 'Daises Of The Galaxy' following the story of his sisters funeral; to more thematic links like 'A Magic World' following the first reading about E's troubled youth.Full Setlist:
Grace Kelly Blues
new song ("now I'm full of love")
Millcent Don't Blame Yourself
Dirty Girl
Ugly Love
*book reading
A Magic World
* book reading
3 Speed
Climbing To The Moon
I Like Birds
It's A Motherfucker
Flyswatter
Bus Stop Boxer
* book reading
Daisies Of The Galaxy
Somebody Loves You
* book reading
Souljacker Part II
encore:
Girl From The North Country
