Eels - Live Review (Birmingham Aug 26th)

Never has a gig ever been so succinctly summed up, as when at the end of the show my friend turned to me and simply remarked “well E seems happier’.

Drawing heavily from his three most recent albums (Hombre lobo, End Times and Tomorrow Morning) E and his band kept the tempo fast and moods high as he rattled through 26 songs, including three rapturous encores. Fans of his earlier work however were not left wanting as included within the set; E treated the crowd to classics like ‘Daisies of the Galaxy’ and revitalised and reinvented versions of songs such as ‘I like Birds’ (transformed from a wistful acoustic track to an aggressive punk number).

Highlights included a trio of covers ranging from Rolling Stones to George Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’. It was the Lovin’ Spoonful track ‘Summer in the City’ however that dragged the midlands crowd out of their rain-induced lacklustre, with front man E declaring it was designed and played as ‘to blow some sunshine into [the crowd] asses’.

Tomorrow Morning‘s ‘I Like the way this is Going’ rounded of a fantastic evening of music and as the crowd dispersed all collectively humming, whistling or singing ‘Souljacker pt.1’ you can’t help feel that a happy E makes for a better Eels. More willing to reign in the melancholy, this heavily bearded icon of garage rock is on top form and well worth catching if you can.

DwR