EELS & THE INSPECTOR CLUZO

On a cold Wednesday night in Norwich, I am tempted to stay in but I drag myself to Epic Studios to see Eels. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like Eels on record but I don’t love ’em. My expectations aren’t that high. I have never seen them live and I expect them to be okay. They are sooooo much better than that.

But more of that later. First up we have Gascon blooze-boogie-rock duo, THE INSPECTOR CLUZO. The duo say that they are farmers when not touring. I dunno if that is true but an impassioned speech hitting out at Monsanto and GMOs suggests it is. Whatever, hard-hitting, crowd-surfing drummer Mathieu looks like Ron Mael of Sparks but plays like Fliss (Nightingales) Kitson whilst Laurent plays his SG exactly the way it was built to be played. His vocals go from a rough howl (that is right up my street) to a falsetto (which isn’t) and he proves himself an endearing frontman. Would I listen to The Inspector Cluzo at home? Probably not as the ZZ Top-meets-Black Keys rocking blues is not really my bag. Would I go and see ‘em again? Damn right. The music is far from original but done with style and verve, it is fun and they make me SMILE which doesn’t often happen. If and when The Inspector Cluzo tour here again, go see them. Go on.

Now for EELS. As I have said, I arrive expecting a decent but not amazing night. I’ve got a couple or three Eels albums and I enjoy ’em when I put them on but they’re not calling out to be played that often. It isn’t overstating things to say that Eels delivered more – a lot more – than I was expecting.

The set starts with what sounds like a mash up of a self-affirmation tape and some easy listening before breaking into a discordant take on Also sprach Zarathustra (AKA the theme music from 2001: A Space Odyssey) that is so unlistenable that any band taking to the stage would be a relief. As it is, Mark “E” Everett and co arrive in tuxedos and dicky bows to break into a set that is an almost perfect distillation of the Eels sound. The sound takes in everything from lounge music to garage rock, soul testifying to alternative/indie to create something that is both classic yet contemporary and is uniquely Eels.

Now, I could go through each song but you can check out setlist.fm for that. I’ll just say that every one of songs played (21 in the main set plus another five over two encores) was solid gold. It spanned pretty much the entirety of Eels’ back catalogue from 1996’s Beautiful Freak up to 2022’s Extreme Witchcraft. There’s four covers in the form of NRBQ’s Me And The Boys, Small Faces’ Watcha Gonna Do About It, a brilliantly swamp-rockin’ take on Nancy Sinatra’s Drummer Man and a surprisingly straight take on Argent’s God Gave Rock ‘n’ Roll To You for the final encore. Highlights for me were a rumbling Dog Faced Boy that came on like Wild Billy Childish at his best and dark rocker The Deconstruction where The Chet made his guitar sound like a singing saw.

Throughout, the band – The Chet on guitar, Big Al on bass and drummer Little Joe - provide a backing for mainman E that is just about perfect. The musicianship is superb, mostly laid-back with the more fiery or flashy moments being there in service of the song. E himself is humorous and engaging, in fine, raspy voice.

I’ve had the chance to see Eels before and never taken it. This has been a night that has made me realise that was a mistake. Grand stuff, indeed.