official release

In 2006 the EELS rocked London. And they rocked quite hard. So in 2008 a registration of the second show in the British capital, added by to popular demand, was released to relive the 'good old days'. It's a cd/dvd set that was released on the E Works Records label, just like most of the other EELS live releases. And also this one was only sold during EELS shows at the merchandise booth. Be warned though. Playing this set lioud might damage your stereo at home! Or worse, your home cinema set! Here's a preview:

[source: the EELS YouTube channel]

review

I have been into EELS since their first album came out in 1996 and have now seen them 5 times over the years, and each time has been radically different from the previous time. Last nights show was no exception to that, in fact the show was in 100% contrast to last May’s performance at the Royal Festival Hall.

This show was billed as EELS without strings, and there were no strings for sure. On the last tour E had dropped Butch (drummer from the first album until Shootenanny), which I thought would be detrimental to the performance. Butch is not only a brilliant drummer, but has bags of personality and to me EELS is Mr. E and Butch. Mr. E also added a string section and for my money it was not the type of performance that I go for, yes they were competent, but it lacked spark for me (Live At Town Hall was recorded on this tour). I think I felt it would be a similar performance without the string section and that is probably why I was not really wanting to go. The clues were there however as EELS usually play seated venues (they have played the Festival Hall on at least 3 tours) and the Astoria is standing as we know. This was definitely a standing gig, there was even a mini mosh pit (at an EELS show!!!!).

The line up was a 3 piece with no bass player and they sounded great. For the majority of the set each song was spat out like machine gun fire, one after the other at 100 mph. Highlights included The Sound Of Fear, My Beloved Monster (this was bloody heavy and fast), Cancer For The Cure and Mr. E's Beautiful Blues. The show started with this big dude in a SECURITY t-shirt coming on the stage to the sound of feedback guitar and went on for about 3 mins before the band came on. The band were all dressed in grey boiler suits like cleaners or construction workers (not too dissimilar to the Unabomber look of the Souljacker tour in 2001), they all had lots of facial hair and Mr. E wore shades throughout the whole show. From the off this was going to be nothing like the last tour and boy did they rock.

Mr. E does tend to change the presentation and look of each tour, for example on the Electro-Shock Blues Show they were a 3-piece, for the Daisies Of The Galaxy tour there were about 8 members of the band including a horn section, the last tour was strings, so you get my drift. He also changes the arrangements of songs to suit the look and style of the band, so a lot of the songs I may know, but failed to recognise. This is one of the things I really like about EELS, their ability to constantly surprise for each separate tour (like Prince back when he was good). This band included The Chet (guitar), Knuckles (drums) and Krazy Al (SECURITY). The Chet is an excellent guitarist and was on the previous tour, and made everything look easy, Knuckles really beat the crap out of his drum kit and wore a safety helmet throughout the entire performance (apart from the last encore), but he is no Butch.

As I stated they rattled through the first 15 songs or so, and then played a track that went on for about 15-20 mins, mainly guitar noise, during which Mr. E left the stage and SECURITY man (who all night made funny little comments between songs such as "And You Are?") played some guitar. This bored me somewhat, but it was over soon enough. The set ended with a couple of interesting covers, I Put A Spell On You and That’s Life. The encores were fantastic opening with Cancer For The Cure, then going into an ultra fast and heavy I Like Birds before finishing with Mr E's Beautiful Blues. For this encore he had the two young girls from Smoosh dance around on stage and provide backing vocals, and it looked like fun.

Now the next thing I have only ever seen once before at a gig, and I got a bit lucky this time. After the encores the houselights came on and the music started playing signalling that it is time to go home, so I went to the exit I usually use and it was shut, so I had to go back through the auditorium. When I got there, there were people still hanging around the stage, not just a few waiting for souvenirs like a pick or setlist etc, but a whole load of people and it did make me wonder if I was missing something. I decided that I wasn't and went for the usual exit behind the mixing desk. As I made my way there the band came back on stage and performed one last encore to a half empty hall (I think this was deliberate as Mr. E can be very mischievous, also these people holding back knew something was going to happen).

The show rocked better than I could have imagined and I will endeavour to catch them again at Oxegen where I'll have some space to shake my booty (well there will be plenty of headbanging going on anyway). Catch this band at all costs, at 20 pounds it's a steal.

Noose Rating: 9
Kerrang Rating: Alive and Screaming (which for once is accurate)

[review sent in by Noose]

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