Eels
Showbox, June 4, 2006

On Sunday night, Eels returned to Seattle to follow up their previous “With Strings” tour with a blistering set at the Showbox that was the perfect antithesis to their performance at the Moore Theater last year. This time calling the tour “No Strings Attached,” band leader and brain of Eels Mark Oliver Everett, otherwise know as E, blazed through the most rocking songs of the Eels’ catalogue, alongside The Chet, Knuckles, and Krazy Al (or guitarist Chet Lyster, drummer Derek Brown, and bassist Alan Hunter respectively). The cartoonish names are but a small part of the gimmick that drove the band’s performance, though. Whereas during the “With Strings” tour E, The Chet, and even Krazy Al (then Big Al) wore suits and ties, looking nearly professorial, or at least professional, on this tour the band members looked considerably more blue collar, sporting dark jumpsuits (E and The Chet), a black “Security” t-shirt (Krazy Al), or an emblem-less military uniform and a Civil War styled hat (Knuckles). Despite these seemingly disparate costumes, dark sunglasses and profuse facial hair united the band visually.

Beside each other, with all of the whiskers, E, The Chet and Knuckles may as well have been brothers. Krazy Al stood apart, quite literally, from the band with his cleanly shaved head and pretended to be an actual security guard, arms crossed, scanning and scowling at the crowd rather than playing any actual instruments. He truly earned his moniker by practicing karate moves, lifting weights and spouting aphoristic non-sequiturs like “I know what the deal looks like! And this is the deal!” On a very few occasions did he actually contribute to the band’s musical output. But his sonic absence was hardly missed as E, The Chet and Knuckles roared through their set, which included a few classic Eels songs, such as “My Beloved Monster” and “The Sound of Fear,” some mid-career howlers like “Dog Faced Boy” and “Souljacker, Part 1,” and a selection of the newest material Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, among which the opener “Old Shit/New Shit” set the stage for the entire concert.

Throughout the night, Eels blasted through a series of covers: Tom Waits’ “Jesus Gonna Be Here” (sung by The Chet), the Peaches/Iggy Pop collaboration “Rock Show” (in case you weren’t paying attention), Willie Dixon’s “Crazy Love” (which was Krazy Al’s theme), Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life” (sounding nothing like ol’ Blue Eyes) and a very Screamin’ “I Put A Spell On You.” As always, the band “performs,” not just musically but as personalities. E is, as always, aloof, rarely speaking to the crowd, but communicating instead through Krazy Al, who loyally does his bidding, as when E points to various members of the crowd and Krazy Al approaches them menacingly but then reaches out his hand to high-five and knuckle bump appreciative fans, or later when he sprays whipped cream into eager mouths, including E’s.

To many observers, the “E” might as well stand for enfant terrible, but it’s not difficult to see that his seemingly temperamental actions, such as when he leaves the stage midway through “Not Ready Yet,” are part of the act. And when Krazy Al snaps on rubber gloves and then hauls off a heckler from the crowd, it’s likely that the perpetrator was a plant. There are enough cracks within the stage theatrics to reveal that E stands before the crowd night after night for the joy of performance. If skeptics can’t see through the tough-guy façade of the main set, surely the encore, during which pre-teen boppers Asya and Chloe of the local band Smoosh dance around the stage to “Cancer for the Cure” and “I Like Birds,” will convince them. And if they are lucky enough to stick around for Eels’ signature “secret encore,” which inevitably occurs after the lights are on and the majority of the crowd have dispersed, they’ll see an Eels stripped of jumpsuits and histrionics, and grinning through “Saturday Morning” for the diehard fans.

- Jim

The Boy Least Likely To
Chop Suey - May 31, 2006

The Wendover, England, band stopped in Seattle on Wednesday night on their current North American tour for their debut album, The Best Party Ever. As you’d expect from the twee band, whose characteristic song titles include “Hugging My Grudge” - (MP3) and “Fur Soft as Fur” - (MP3), the show was light and fun. The band joked between songs to a relatively small but enthusiastic crowd, and even took questions, no matter how silly (“Do you like alligators?” “I don’t really, no.”). The main attraction was the double act of Jof and Peter, the two songwriters and original members of the band, who did the funny man / straight man bit to perfection. Because of their limited material (The Best Party Ever clocks in under 40 minutes), the set included nearly every song from their album as well as a few b-sides and a new song about being inept at sports, called “Oddballs.” One of the highlights, though, was a brilliant cover of George Michael’s “Faith,” which the band the band adapted quite readily to their signature banjo/recorder/xylophone aesthetic. But nothing matched the band’s blowout finale, the crowd-pleaser “Be Gentle With Me” - (MP3) to which they regaled the crowd with dual bubble machines. It was a Lawrence Welk end to a Belle & Sebastian evening.

Here are a couple more from The Boy Least Likely To…

Rock Upon A Porch With You - (MP3)
Be Gentle With Me (video) - (WMV)

KEXP Sasquatch “Fly Away” winner Dash Dennis stopped by the station today accompanied by his friend Tim Taylor. The two toured the station and met dj’s John Richards and Cheryl Waters before heading off the Gorge this afternoon. The duo flew in to Seattle from Oklahoma yesterday, stayed in Seattle’s legendary hostel, The Green Tortoise, sampled Seattle’s fine diner cuisine at Glo’s, and arrived bright and early at the station to check the place out. At Sasquatch, Dash and Tim are eager to see TV on the Radio and hometown faves The Flaming Lips, among many others. If you’re going out to Sasquatch, look for Dash and Tim. They’ll be the ones loaded with KEXP swag! But don’t take their VIP parking space!

Easy Street Records
Seattle
May 19, 2006

Free shows in Seattle are known to attract nearly as many gawkers and cheapskates as actual fans, but it was clear that the audience gathered at Easy Street Records on Friday night were clearly there to pay their respects to the Modesto, CA, band Grandaddy on one of its final performances. In case you didn’t know, Grandaddy has called it quits with the release of their most recent album, Just Like the Fambly Cat. As a final farewell, frontman Jason Lytle — equipped with an acoustic guitar and his ever present baseball cap — has been performing at a series of record stores like this one across the country rather than attempting a national tour. In fact, these free performances are fitting since the inability to make any money while touring is one of the reasons Lytle cites for the demise of the band.

Despite the understanding by both Jason Lytle and the audience that this would mark the end of Grandaddy in Seattle, the performance was endearing and positive. Lytle cracked early on about how he had “a pretty good wine buzz going on” and related a story about rolling down a hill at a park in Magnolia on top of his guitar case laid upon his skateboard. Later, Lytle claimed that he missed his band and that they had “a good time together” and “a good run.” And he promised that he didn’t “have any big plans of striking out and being a folky songwriter guy.” Besides these few comments, Lytle kept his banter short and focused on a set of songs that covered his last four albums, including the collection Concrete Dunes, as well as a rarity, “Aisle Seat 37-D” from a “Devil in the Woods” 7 inch single, and a cover, “I Need You” originally written and performed by America.

It was difficult for the audience not to listen to the lyrics of every song for clues as to why Grandaddy’s most recent album would be their last, especially through songs like “Summer … It’s Gone,” in which he sings, “I don’t know where everyone went or where I’ll go,” or on “My Small Love,” when he sings, “I don’t get you/I don’t get anyone/I’ve lost my way/I don’t get any of this.” But Jason Lytle kept the mood light on songs like “The Crystal Lake,” on which he provided chuckle-inducing a cappella trills normally provided by digital instrumentation. He even joked about how “dramatic” the songs were and assured the audience by saying, “I’m not taking any of this for granted.”

At no point in the show did it seem like Jason Lytle would be gone for good, only that Grandaddy wouldn’t continue in its current form. To emphasize that point, Lytle ended his set with a final rarity, “Levitz (Birdless),” in which he sings, “Wrong to say that I am giving up/Right to say that I ain’t showing up.”

For the fans, Jason Lytle did show up. After the performance, he spent nearly two hours signing cds, posters, and even a skateboard while chatting with fans. He seemed in no hurry to leave. And the fans were certainly in no hurry to see him go.

Jim

Listen to Jason’s in-studio performance from Friday afternoon at our Streaming Archive.