Eels live review
Bookending a show with two of pop’s most bulletproof songs – namely When You Wish Upon A Star and Can’t Help Falling in Love – would be bold even if, unlike Eels, your last few albums hadn’t been largely forgettable, maudlin affairs. But what could’ve spelled disaster is rendered as masterstroke tonight by Mark Everett’s ineffable performance presence, pitched half way between comic depressive (Everett knowingly describes the setlist as “sweet, soft, bummer rock”) and stoic, home-truth raconteur, which both emboldens the slushy standards with the searing honesty of Eels’ best songs and, likewise, sprinkles Everett’s own compositions with the invincibility of the classics.
It helps too that Everett selects his finest rather than newest songs tonight: almost half of 2000’s career-best Daisies Of The Galaxy gets an outing, and the undeniable songcraft fills the Albert Hall with an life-affirming rush of reassuring joy.
