Eels in Vancouver (not Philadelphia) 

Eels in Vancouver (not Philadelphia)

This performance at Philadelphia’s Trocadero, August 3, 1996, is the earliest Eels bootleg I could find. (Well, I have a few radio interviews/performances, but sharing those are a no-no.) The newly formed Eels had played a few try-out gigs in 1995, and one in June of 1996, but this is the first full-fledged on-the-road concert the trio had put on. And it’s pretty damn good.

It’s a very short set–only 10 songs, including seven from Beautiful Freak, released 10 days later–but very well played, and E’s songs make the leap from basement tapes to live material quite well. The set warms up with a cover of Prince’s “If I Was Your Girlfriend” and a little instrumental vamping courtesy “Fingertips, Part III”, then really picks up with a slightly retooled “Susan’s House”. The song’s phone introduction is the first of many showman-like touches that would appear in the Eels’ live performances, followed later in this set by the first of a zillion “Novocaine For The Soul” permutations.

The rest of the set sails to a fine conclusion, past a fairly rote “Rags To Rags”, on to a cover of Sophie B. Hawkins’s “Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover”, and ending with an extended “Not Ready Yet”. This set list would remain essentially unchanged for the rest of the summer and autumn of 1996. This tour, the so-called Beautiful Freak Show, would extend through 1997 with a few set list additions that I might share later. But this recording has great sound quality and, though someone broke up the tracks a little roughly, is a great listen for even the most casual Eels fan.

So I hope you enjoy this opportunity to hear E and his cohorts at their outset as a band. Though E has remarked that Beautiful Freak would just as easily been his third solo album had he not connected with then-drummer Butch and then-bassist Tommy Walter, the songs performed live really take off, and E’s partners deserve a good deal of credit for making them do so.

Track Listing:

  1. If I Was Your Girlfriend
  2. Fingertips, Part III
  3. Susan’s House
  4. My Beloved Monster
  5. Mental
  6. Beautiful Freak
  7. Novocaine For The Soul
  8. Rags To Rags
  9. Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover
  10. Not Ready Yet

[Sorry, but this bootleg is no longer available here.]