The EELS at the Showbox

GUEST BLOGGER: Tyson Lynn

The EELS played a sold out show at The Showbox Friday night, and I wanted nothing more than to be there. But I slacked, waiting too long to buy tickets, hoping for one of those things that happens sometimes when you write about something you love: it ignores you and breaks your heart. So that happened, but unfortunately it’s not redeemable at the door.

For you lucky few who made it in (the show was sold out), I hope you had a great time and will tell me how it goes. Here’s why:

Some years ago, I worked for Resonance, the late great Seattle culture mag. Through them, I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Mark Oliver Everett- Mr. EELS himself- about vice. A choice quote from that interview:

Do you smoke more or less out on the road?

I think I did smoke more on the tour, because it was part of the show. It was used as a theatrical device, which made it slightly less enjoyable because it had to be choreographed. Ok, I have a moment here to puff, then I’ve got to put the guitar on, and then turn over here and play the pump organ, another puff here, sing here. It was fun, but it wasn’t as enjoyable as sitting down and doing nothing but smoke. That was the only time I was smoking on tour. I wasn’t smoking after the show because I’d had enough during the show.

Here is a man who built an entire tour (a laudable one, too, viewable at your discretion on EELS with Strings: Live at Town Hall) around smoking. Featuring two sidemen and a string quartet, it was a big to-do of a performance. I saw him on his next go-through, and it was an entirely different beast.

He came on stage, this tall, hulking man, dressed simply in bemused arrogance. This was Security (he was also their back-up singer and tambourine player; both touches of magnificent genius). The band came on behind him, four men total, wearing leathers and blacks. They never addressed the crowd as they played EELS songs at a gut-rupturing level for nearly ninety minutes. I felt truly like a man that night, that show was so good.

In Daniel Levitin’s book This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, he mentions how finely attuned we are to the non-musical process of creating music, the physical tool of creation. He says:

“New studies […] have shown that non-musician listeners are exquisitely sensitive to the physical gestures that musicians make. By watching a musical performance with the sound turned off, and attending to things like the musician’s arm, shoulder, and torso movements, ordinary listeners can detect a great deal of the expressive intentions of the musician. Add in the sound, and an emergent quality appears–an understanding of the musician’s expressive intentions that goes beyond what was available in the sound or the visual image alone.”

Which is a long way of saying: nothing I say can recreate the mesmerizing experience of seeing the EELS play that night, wrapped up as it was in its method of delivery, and I expect the same tonight. So, please, tell me how it goes, and you and I will both understand if all you’re left with is: Awesome.