From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V5 #154 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Monday, June 20 2005 Volume 05 : Number 154 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [loud-fans] Sad News [AWeiss4338@aol.com] [loud-fans] another gone [Jenny Grover ] [loud-fans] Donnette, Gui, Suzi and Steve Kilby have touched this... [Gil] [loud-fans] Eels in Portland, June 16, 2005 [Michael Zwirn Subject: [loud-fans] another gone http://www.startribune.com/stories/466/5463149.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2005 19:28:25 -0700 (PDT) From: Gil Ray Subject: [loud-fans] Donnette, Gui, Suzi and Steve Kilby have touched this... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=41439&item=7331459418&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW Donnette wrote and asked that I let people know about this. Sounds like she's hittin' a little bit of rough road right now. Maybe some rich GT fan might want this. There is probably plenty of Gui DNA imbedded on this guitar. Gil Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2005 21:13:10 -0700 From: Michael Zwirn Subject: [loud-fans] Eels in Portland, June 16, 2005 The first and only time I saw the Eels in concert, it was part of their 1998 tour for Electro-Shock Blues, with Lisa Germano opening and performing with the band. This is one of the most legendarily depressing records in modern pop, up there with Big Star's Third/Sister Lovers, and yet it's a masterful album, and surely the best thing E had ever done to date. In the succeeding years, the Eels have released a steady stream of records, but I've sensed a diminishing rate of return with their successive albums. I remained a dedicated fan but it was hard to get excited by Souljacker or Shootenany!, the last two records, and Dreamworks appeared to have agreed by dropping them quietly. But the recent two-disc Blinking Lights and Other Revelations has generated a lot of attention, and I asked my friend Julianne to get tickets for me ahead of time for their Portland gig. So as Julianne and I stood outside and befriended other Eels fans, the line stretched far behind us into the rainy night. After some tour bus issues  the band was stranded by the Mormon temple on the outskirts of town  and technical problems involving a film projector that had to be abandoned, the Aladdin finally let in the crowd, and without too much additional delay, E and the Eels took the stage, accompanied by a four-piece string section. Big Al and The Chet, the other Eels members, are Portlanders and members of the James Low Band, and they brought a crowd of locals into the audience who cheered their every solo. But E simply steals the show. He's cultivated and perfected the persona of a dapper older bandleader, wearing a suit, smoking a cigar, and carrying a walking stick while jumping between piano, harmonium, and guitars. With his beard, attire, and gruff vocals, he's adopted the persona of a man far older and wiser than his years. But E is wickedly funny, something that his albums haven't always displayed. For a guy whose life has been a long and bitter sequence of personal losses (Electro-Shock Blues is about his mother's terminal cancer and his sister's suicide), he has learned to modulate the stark lyrics of his songs with deadpan humor. And he knows his audience, which is a larger and more enthusiastic one than you might imagine. Mixing a host of affecting new songs from Blinking Lights with a mix of older material and some wonderful cover material, he and the Eels did an absolutely great set that  yes  left the audience delighted. Given the gravity of E's material, that's a remarkable feat, but it demonstrates what an effective songwriter he is, and how skillful his band members are. Big Al and The Chet displayed proficiency on everything from drums to dulcimer to acoustic bass to pedal steel guitar to musical saw, and the four-piece string section provided both dramatic heft to the ballads and a lot of added rhythm to the upbeat numbers. "Going to Your Funeral Pt. 2" (from Electro-Shock Blues was the stark opening number, followed by some ballads from Blinking Lights but things picked up quickly with pleasant surprises like "The Only Thing I Care About" (from E's solo Broken Toy Shop, Shrek soundtrack number "My Beloved Monster", and the chipper "I Like Birds" from Daisies of the Galaxy. There was a ripping cover of The Left Banke's "Pretty Ballerina", which was made for a string quartet accompaniment, and a soft piano version of Dylan's "Girl from the North Country." Souljacker was represented by a few of the noisier rock numbers, "Dog Faced Boy" and "Bus Stop Boxer", but there was a pair of rock songs from the new album too, "Going Fetal" and "Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)". But I find E most effective when he uses just enough added instrumentation to back up his thoughtful pop songs, most of which are perfectly functional as standalone guitar or piano numbers. "Things the Grandchildren Should Know" from Blinking Lights and "Spunky" from Beautiful Freak were exemplars of that form. After a host of false endings and encores, the band returned for one last brief set with the house lights already up  with E in pyjamas!  on Prince's "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" and closed with an instrumental of "Mr. E's Beautiful Blues," the shoulda-been hit from Daisies of the Galaxy. Each member left in turn to appreciative applause, ending with the string section, and the audience filed happily out into the dark. That's right, happily. - --------------------- Michael W. Zwirn, michael@zwirn.com (t) 503-234-3901 (c) 503-887-9800 http://zwirn.com ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V5 #154 *******************************