Eels are one of my all time favourite bands and they're specifically brilliant performing live. Their shows always have a kind of theme that makes it into more than just a live music performance. They pick songs based on what the previous album was like. If it was more of a personal and melancholic album, they play songs like that throughout the show, if it's been more of a rock show, they play faster rock songs. This live album catches Eels at the best period in their career. They had released all of their best albums, the latest one being Blinking Lights and Other Revelations. Only one of the three shows I've seen live was that kind of sentimental gig where E was playing his heartbreak songs and really singing his heart out. That show I saw in Barbican was probably one of the best shows I've seen in my life. I cried on many occasion from the sheer beauty of the songs and having read E's autobiography, I was really touched by the songs that told about his sad experiences concerning his family that died from around him.
There are many songs on this album so I'm not going to go through all of them. I'm going to comment these songs in the posts about the albums they're in anyway. So, instead I'm just going to talk about the songs that are not on any of the normal albums. The first of these is The Only Thing I Care About. I don't know what kind fo production there could be for this song on the album, but in this live performance it's just beautiful string arrangements with E's raspy vocals on top and I have to say it is beautiful. The other non-album track on this album is Girl From the North Country originally written by Bob Dylan. This is a superbly beautiful song and E's depiction of it sounds even better than any other version I've heard about this song. This was one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to buy this album. There's one more non-album song here, Poor Side of Town by Johnny Rivers. Again, E owns the song as another beautiful Eels song.
E is one of the funniest performers I know. It's a true pleasure to listen to his banter because there's something so real about his presence even if he's playing characters on stage every once in a while. There was a documentary film related to this album's gig and here's a small clip showing E travelling in New York City subway and talking about how strange it is for him to be surrounded by other people. This is followed by performance of the song Bus stop Boxer where musical saw is beautifully played.
I don't often like live albums that much. I like to listen to music where the best possible take has been chosen on the album and I don't like listening to audiences reactions to the songs if I'm not there present by myself. Nevertheless, I think this is a great live album, because there's something really intimate about the sounds of it. People are nicely silent when the songs are playing, as they obviously are more at theatre gigs, such as this one. So much better than rowdy club gigs where people are pushing and shoving each other drunk and talking to their friends loudly.
I have pretty much all of the albums Eels have ever released and they just continue making albums that touch me. I really hope this continues to be the case for many years to come.
Listen to the album on Spotify.
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