The Eels : Live at The Cannery Ballroom
Eel’s frontman E has taken the band from its early 90s alt-rock roots, down a winding path to now almost 25 years later where, albeit less frequently, the band is still rocking out and recording new music for their loyal fans. In 2018, their long awaited album Deconstruction dropped, and to highlight the record and the Eel’s long standing career they launched their 2018-2019 tour, featuring the tongue-in-cheek label “The Triumphant Return of the Eels: The World’s Number One Entertainers”. Eels front man E seems to be long past the grandstanding and overly-sincere self-promotion required of new artists on the scene, though he’s certainly ready to parody that sentiment and just put out good music. As a 20+ year veteran of the music industry who’s perhaps a little jaded. but still hopeful when he can be, E declares that the album Destruction “...is just music. Music by someone who tends to believe that change starts in your own backyard. I’m just optimistic enough to believe that kind of thing can still help people.”
Seeing the Eels live for the first time in Nashville, I was prepared for a mixture of that cheeky humor, matched with the cleverness and skillfulness of E’s lyrics and melodies. The Eels seemed to want to hold off at first from celebrating their own music however, as they started the set with a series of bluesy covers, and ended the run of covers with a delightfully fun rendition of Prince’s “Raspberry Beret”. Perhaps recognizing the age of the covers, E began teasing himself about his age to the audience, and then segued to the next part of the set by yelling out “who wants some soft rock!!!”
The Eels then switched away from covers for a time and gave the crowd what they came for as they started with some softer tracks, than moving all about in their career. Considering the tour was tied to Deconstruction, it was perhaps a bit odd that their release Hombre Lobo, their 7th album from 2009, featured more predominantly. However the Nashville crowd certainly did not seem to mind, as they rocked to the rhythms.
Fans of early Eels would appreciate the inclusion of “My Beloved Freak” and the Eels top-charting single “Novocaine from the Soul”. For my part I really developed my fandom in the era of “Blinking Lights and Other Revelations”, which was by no means a centerpiece of the set, but got some love in particular with “Blinking Lights” (For Me)”. Of course though for any Eels fan, even if your favorite track wasn’t played, you had to be impressed by how deeply E plumbed their musical catalog for the set list.
Though it was not a sold-out show, I could tell from the # of well worn Eels tour shirts in line, and the audience’s energetic syncopation to the music, that those who came to the show were indeed fans and long time listeners. That made the show all the more meaningful, as if we were sharing a moment. Definitely for my part this was a wonderful evening, if you’re a fan of the Eels as well, then I’d say give one of their remaining US 2019 dates a shot and you won’t be disappointed.