Life of an Eel is played out
SOMERVILLE - You've heard of the concept album, but what about the concept concert?
Mark Oliver Everett, also known as E, the sole longstanding member of the band Eels, is on the road in an alt-rock version of "This Is Your Life." Of course, all of Everett's intensely personal music revolves around a theme of "me," but this low-key, multimedia show catapults the artist's self-reflection to a literate and sometimes humorous new level.
The evening opened with a screening of "Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives," a BBC documentary about the Everett family, which any Eels devotee knows is a tragically integral part of the band's music. Quirky as it may seem to start a rock show with a film about quantum physics (specifically, the theories postulated by Everett the elder), the son's odyssey to get to know his brilliant, distant father 25 years after his death was richly illuminating. With the film's family snapshots still fresh on the mind, hearing Everett sing "Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor" (about his sister's suicide) was nothing short of poignant.
All said, "An Evening With Eels" was geared toward hard-core fans eager for illumination. A disembodied voice introduced the show's musical portion with a needless reminder: "The following is a true story." Lovely pop-rock songs, most laced with longing and despair, some surprisingly hopeful, were interspersed with readings from Everett's new memoir and some laughable fan mail.
Everett is touring with one good-natured utility player known as the Chet. The pair didn't sit still for longer than the length of a song, criss-crossing the stage to take up new positions at the piano, behind the drum kit, at the harmonium, with an electric guitar.
Weirdly, it was the Chet who read passages from "Things the Grandchildren Should Know" and sang lead on a cover of Zeppelin's "Good Times, Bad Times."
Eels released more than 75 tracks on a pair of jam-packed compilations earlier this year, which gave Everett a great reason to randomly scour the catalog in concert. With a two-man lineup, the songs sounded invariably stripped, but they spanned the aesthetic spectrum: from the winsome folk of "Cheater's Guide" to earnest pop ("I Want to Protect You").
"Life is hard/ And so am I," Everett sang, rough and at the ready, on "Novocaine for the Soul." After this show, his outlook requires no explanation.
