THE celebrated addition to Glasgow’s No Mean City Festival, Californian rock band Eels took to the O2 ABC stage on Tuesday night in a return to the city for the second time in six months. Front man Mark Oliver Everett, better known to fans as E, took to the stage dressed head-to-toe in a dazzling sports tracksuit. The band follow-suit, in-keeping with the sports theme.
A strange stage formation takes place with drums stage right, E stage left and three additional members on base and two guitars centred.
Dealing with family suicides, cancer and recording albums in their basements; Eels are the slippery guys of rock that have been around the block and back again.
Opener Cancer for the Cure is rocky and gives off a wave-shocking sound which bellows through the room. The crunching guitar vibe gets the crowds attention as they excitedly get into the music.
The band keep the momentum going with second tune Kinda Fuzzy which has a similar vibe. A great guitar riff with heavy vocals on the chorus give this a true old school rock n’n roll feel.
E shows no sign of slowing down as he bellows out track after track including On the Ropes, Fresh Feeling and Saturday Morning.
Crunching guitar riffs and heavy bass parts pave the way for the rest of the set which is both loud and professional, Eels performing like pros.
Chatting to the crowd regularly, E shows his American heritage runs through his veins getting into discussions about rocking and even apple sauce.
Dirty Girl winds down the set as the gig comes to a close, picking up his guitar for this track E belts out mellow lyrics with great passion.
Thankfully, rock returns as a band mash-up of My Beloved takes place. The crowd goes nuts, embracing the hard drum beat and crunching riffs.
Starting Fresh Blood with a loud scream, E leads the way for the band to embark on the bluesy rock ‘n’ roll tune.
Crowd pleaser Fresh Blood sends the crowd into crazed excitement with everyone singing along. This leads E to tell the crowd: “Turns out rocking is fun, nobody told me!”
Returning on-stage for the encore, the band get into a fight with the sound guy: “He’s telling us we can’t do two songs. One means one he tells me,” E shares his exchanges with the crowd. They make do, combining Open My Present and Go Eeels to great effect.
It’s in the second depart from stage that the band play the song that everyone has been waiting for this entire gig, and as the mellow riff begins of Mr Es Beautiful Blues, the crowd sway and swing along to what ends a great gig from the Americans- giving everything they have got and really treating the crowd to their talent.
