Tuesday night, I may have upset / angered / disappointed / overly excited my twitter followers by tweeting...
E is fantastic!
...followed a little later by...
On an E high so can't even consider sleep. Thank god Radcliffe's on the radio.
I suppose I ought to come clean and confess - no, I haven't been taking Class A drugs... the truth is (smug, holier-than-thou comment alert!) I don't need 'em. My E high was a natural one, brought about by an evening of top quality musical entertainment from Mark 'E' Everett: lead singer, songwriter, guitarist and premier beard-wearer of the Eels.
E has been on a creative high over the last couple of years, releasing a trilogy of excellent records that deal with three notable stages of a relationship - desire, break-up and moving on - Hombre Lobo,
End Times
and Tomorrow Morning.
These, together with their sublime predecessor, the career best double album Blinking Lights And Other Revelations
contain some of the strongest material Eels have ever recorded, and as it's getting on for ten years since I last saw them live, it was great to hear so many recent songs played on Tuesday night, along with earlier classics like Souljacker, Saturday Morning and, of course, their debut hit Novocaine For The Soul. The days when Eels troubled the singles chart are long since passed, but like many bands of their ilk they continue to produce records that are easily the equal of their rock star glory days. Many of Everett's songs are starkly personal and deal with serious issues like depression, death and alienation. You might not know that from hearing them played live though - especially with E's current band, the funkiest group of musicians he's gathered to date, particularly that wonderful horn section. I've always been a fan of brass in pop music (being a former brass bandsman myself) and think it high time more artists roped in a horn section, particularly for live shows. But funk isn't the only thing this band brought to Leeds on Tuesday - they also supplied an outstanding selection of facial hair, most notably on E himself who's returned to the full-on Unabomber look he sported in the Shootenanny days, and wears that beard with panache!
Who needs E when you've got E?
