Mark Oliver Everett
St James' Church, London
17 January 2007

In a beautiful church in the very centre of London, a man nervously reads from a podium about the time he tried to drive his car off a bridge. It’s not, as was expected, Mark Oliver Everett (aka E) reading from his new autobiography, Things The Grandchildren Should Know, but a random member of the audience. Everett deemed it too pretentious to read it himself, so sits by his piano each time the 4 random people plucked from the pews recount moments and memories from his life.
“You’re reading it so well,” Everett remarks at one point, “that it’s almost like I lived it myself.”

These snippets of narrative punctuate a solo performance from the Eels mainman. He switches between piano and guitar, playing tender, heartfelt versions of already tender, heartfelt songs. He begins with a stirring rendition of Grace Kelly Blues - a sad, resigned eulogy permeated with abject sadness, but one that somehow remains hopeful and optimistic. And that’s what you learn from this evening – that even though Everett has endured the most difficult life and has lost all of the people closest to him, he’s somehow been able to emerge from the darkest tunnel out into the light and with a caustic, biting sense of humour to boot.

So there are songs like 3 Speed, Climbing To The Moon and Bus Stop Boxer, nostalgic and personal, which carry the weight of his heavy heart but which don’t veer into over-sentimentality, and then there are songs like Dirty Girl and Flyswatter, which are more boldly humorous and surreal. All are played with gusto, Everett’s scratchy voice scraping the walls of the church, hanging above the large white candles behind him. The defiant, oddly life-affirming Souljacker Pt II was a particular highlight – the fact that Pete Townshend was the ‘random’ 4th reader who immediately preceded the song made it, and the night as a whole, that extra bit special. One to remember for a very long time – until death, perhaps, appropriately enough.

Mischa Pearlman