Photo of E by Bryanna Bradley/ The Gazette
On an unusually warm night for late September, E was clearly still thinking about summer during the Eels concert at Le National last night.Two of the three songs the singer-songwriter covered during one of the year's noisiest and hardest-rocking concerts were the Lovin' Spoonful classic Summer in the City and Billy Stewart's exuberant version of the Gershwin evergreen Summertime.
t one point during the 95-minute set, the man of the hour even threw what looked like popsicles into the audience.Butnot all was sunshine pop. E, ne Mark Oliver Everett, has a dark moment to match every time joy breaks through. That delicate balance was reflected in the way savage rave-ups frequently alternated with raspy ballads last night. It was a finely shaded performance, with cloud and light taking turns at the controls.After a dismal set by oh-so-indie singer Jesca Hoop, E came on alone and strummed Grace Kelly Blues. "I think you know I'll be OK," he sang, before calling out for his guitarist The Chet.But was he OK? With The Chet (rechristened Le Chet in Montreal) on lead guitar and pedal steel, he followed up with the sad, lonely and touching Little Doll and the desolate, haunting End Times.And just care that, it was time to rock, as the rest of the latest batch of Eels - bassist Koool G. Murder, guitarist P-Boo and drummer Knuckles - plugged in with a vengeance on the driving Prizefighter and Larry Williams's She Said Yeah, via the Rolling Stones supercharged remake.What a band! Songs from the recent trilogy of Eels discs, Hombre Lobo, End Times and Tomorrow Morning, dominated the concert and grew in volume and edge - even the ballads. For that, you can cite the musicians: the lockstep synergy between the crisply efficient backbeat master Knuckles and the economical, but muscular bassist Murder was a joy to see in My Beloved Monster, especially with three guitars wailing away on top.Granted,it was an Eels crowd: the facial hair on all five musicians was a given, but there was was but as much of a razor boycott going on in theaudience. Yet there was more than fandom driving the show: every song seemed raised from its original studio context through the forceful interaction and freakishly precise ensemble playing of the musicians.Andtheir tight economy was not a chain. At times, in fact, the Eels version of sweet soul music and punky garage rock seemed in danger of being overtaken by the jagged dissonance of a Captain Beefheart as the arrangements escalated in go-for-broke aggression.The band, however, was able to get the course - even with the nasty riffs, the strobe-lit howling at the moon and the unexpected soul-stirring melodiesthat make an Eels concert.
See Bryanna Bradley's photo gallery from the guide here, and see the full set list here. Bernard Perusse ---