Beautiful Freak (21st March 2008)

Tonight was beyond brilliant.

If you want to laugh, listen, cry, smile, get swept away, think, eat icecream, learn stuff, be amazed and come away from a night feeling cleverer and generally a better person... go see the Eels.

We got in the car this afternoon and drove to York in the rain, sleet and sun (wow expedition almost) then spent about half an hour driving round, when we realised we had no idea where to go! We finally found the amazing little venue where we’d be spending the night. Y’see, the ticket said ’Grand Opera House, York’, so we were peering through the windows of my car (with me trying to drive/not hit people at the same time) out at the buildings trying to find this ’Grand Opera House’. Instead it turned out to be this moulin-rouge-esque teeny little theatre with plush red seats and.. those little box seats and stuff. We were in the dress circle, so we were looking down on the guys. It was only as we left that we realised there was a tier of seats above ours! This theatre was seriously like a tube. It just went up and up and up... but wasn’t very big in terms of ground floor. The music sound was GREAT.

As a ’support act’ we watched a documentry about E (Mark Oliver Everett) try to discover more about his father, who came up with the parallel universe theory...! According to pretty much everyone, he’s up there with Newton & Einstein. It was really interesting.. how often can you go to a gig and then come away knowing about the finer points of physics?!

Then there was an interval and ice cream from regular theatre venders : D

After a while, Eels came on. It was just Mark and some guy called The Chet... it was a pretty stripped-down tour set-up; he’s promoting stuff- there weren’t many dates and no promotion... still sold out though :) From what I remember there was: an upright piano, a drumkit, 2 guitars, a mandolin thingy, a slide/lap guitar, a synth, a clavichord/xylophone sounding instrument and a small organ. Sounded mint though. The bass drum MADE the music... it was amazing how just a piano and a drumkit can sound like a full band, but they really did.

Songs I remember:
-Packing blankets (started with this one)
-Dog Faced Boy
-Novacaine for the soul (gave me shivers)
-Susan’s House (synth effects were ace)
-It’s a motherfucker (for some reason it annoyed me that people giggled the first time he sang this line)
-Elizabeth on the bathroom floor (about his sister)
-Flyswatter (massive ad lib in the middle!)
-The sound of fear
-Beautiful Freak
-A cover of ’Good times, bad times’ by Led Zep!

and to be honest, about 20 more haha.. but I’m tired and shit at song titles anyway. I could hum them to you? :D

It was such a good night. We were talking about it on the way home and Phill said it was like watching them in their living room.. there were loads of patterned rugs everywhere! I decided it was like watching a play about the Eels... because of all the banter, mucking around, also they read twice from E’s new book.

(after Chet accidently causes massive feedback)
E to Chet: Ok that was awkward
Chet: Uh huh
E: I like your outfit
Chet: I like yours too
E: I like your flowers
E: ... You’re preeeetty
*taps mic*
E: Oh it’s on

It was so intimate & relaxed : ) I liked how we were sat down (although initially felt a bit weirded out)- because everyone was so quiet when they played... also how dark it was, and how loud the music was.
Drove home in the snow, listening to a random mix tape, then ’Daisies of the Galaxy’. I’m still quite moved from the tracks, especially now I know what they’re about. Mark’s sister killed herself, and his mum died soon after. His music is his therapy. But he is quite objective about the feelings.. he is very passionate, but also kind of detatched. I guess it’s how he functions as well; arses around, banter with Chet & the crowd, but suddenly switches to professional as soon as he strums the first chord.

Aaanyway, just thought I’d share! :)

Me xx




Check out Latitude’s line-up this year.... so beats Leeds in every way. And they haven’t even released a full one yet.

Franz Ferdinand (meh)
Sigur Ros (wooo!)
Interpol (meh)
Death Cab For Cutie (wooooooooooooooooooooo!)
Amadou et Mariam (eh?)
Elbow (woo!)
The Breeders (woo!)
MIA (hehe)
Bill Bailey (yay!)
Ross Noble (yay!)
Simon Amstell (yay!)
Otis Lee Crenshaw (yay!)
Irvine Welsh (*awe*)
PostSecret.com (can’t wait)

And there is my accurate rating system of Latitude line-up so far 2008 XD