The Eels at Town Hall

  Mark Oliver Everett (aka E) 
  Originally uploaded by fredwilson.

Last night The Gotham Gal and I went to see The Eels at Town Hall.

It was among the most interesting, almost bizarre, concerts I have ever seen.

It opened with a 40 minute russian cartoon movie instead of a warmup band.

Then to the sounds of Gene Wilder singing a song from Willy Wonka, out steps Mark Oliver Everertt (aka E)dressed in a suit and smoking a cigar and accompanied only by a string section and a piano player.

He proceeded to sing Dust of Ages off the new album while smoking his cigar.  It was a taste of things to come.

He smoked at least a couple cigars, sipped scotch, played what seemed like about 20 instruments, and took the audience through most of his new record, Blinking Lights, and a smattering of his extensive other work.

Probably the most amazing thing was the piano player who turned out to also play steel guitar, electric guitar, organ, and a drum set consisting of a trash can and a keyboard carrying case.  That guy was amazing!

The Eels are an acquired taste, just like E's cigars and scotch.  But if you've acquired a taste for this stuff, then I highly recommend seeing them live on this tour.

My favorite's were his version of Railroad Man, which he sort of dedicated to Laura Bush, Souljacker, which he ended the main set with, and Things The Grandchildren Should Know, which he ended the show with.

I think I'll be on an Eels binge for at least the July 4th weekend!

UPDATE: Gopster has a great photset of the show on flickr of the show.  The ushers weren't letting me shoot pictures but that didn't stop Gopster.  Great stuff!

Comments

[sig]

Thanks!

"Aquired taste" eh? Took two minutes and three snippets from iTunes store before I hit "buy" :)
And another 4 minutes before two of my colleagues were at it too!

Ahh, the power of the net...

[Ashby]

Something that you didn't mention was that he had about 4 encores. The band kept coming back after more people left. After the third encore, the lights came up and this time everyone still there poured out the door. One of my friends said that they might come back out, as he just saw them in Boston. We went to the front of the upper balcony and waited while about 50 people waited in front of the stage.

Then the band came back out all wearing pajamas. They played another song and then played their way off stage...very funny and cool.

E really does like to ham it up!!!