Last night (Sunday July 27) Mark Everett (aka E) and the Eels visited Salisbury for the last date of their UK tour. I've heard of bands taking a slight detour while on the road, but it seems that Eels played Bristol on Friday before jetting off to New York to play a song on 'CBS This Morning', and then flying back to England for a show in Gateshead on Saturday night, and journeying back down south for the Salisbury show. I'm surprised the band had any energy left. But the show at the City Hall last night was wonderful, beginning with a selection of heartfelt and rather downbeat numbers, mostly from the recent album 'The Cautionary Tales Of Mark Oliver Everett'. Old classics were given new arrangements, the new songs sounded brilliant next to the fan favourites, and the strength of their set and the songs they DIDN'T play just shows how stellar the Eels back catalog is. Big hits such as 'Susan's House', 'Mr E's Beautiful Blues' and 'Souljacker' were left out of the set, and yet nobody minded. After a beautifully uplifting 'Fresh Feeling' and an energised 'I Like Birds', E and his band went on to treat the audience to a stunning reworking of 1998's 'Last Stop: This Town' that actually had me in tears. A mad moment near the end saw Everett asking for a hug before running arms aloft into the seated crowd, many of who got up to embrace their hero. Before last night, I hadn't seen the Eels play live in nearly 14 years. The gap won't be as long next time....
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