The Eels and the Webb Brothers @ the Apollo, Oxford, 28/07/00

It looked awful. The Webb Brothers seemed to be stuck in the 60s, with Monkees styled hair, and ties and v-necked sweaters. In fact the lead singer looked exactly like a Monkee. However the music was nothing like them. They played downbeat, not very cheery songs. Even a song entitled Happy was not very... well... happy. They were unable to excite the audience with their beautifully crafted songs, which would have been very difficult anyway, in a sit down theatre.

Somehow it all changed, just when the Eels came on. They proved that they could provide their own warm-up. First onstage were the backing band, the drummer and saxophone player dressed as nuns, the other brass player in a gold turban, the bass player in a suit and the violinist/guitarist simply in black. They provided the build up, as they played a medley of the Eels' greatest hits, before E was finally lead on stage in pyjamas. He is a man of very few words, instead concentrating on playing the songs. But when he spoke in between some songs he did come out with some very strange comments, including one about having lost his 'retainer' (brace - in British speak) somewhere in Oxford. The songs were great. Not just did they play the songs, but they messed around with them too. For example for the introduction to Novocane to the Soul they played the 2001 theme, with E speaking the first few lines over the music. The best thing of all you could see the band enjoying themselves onstage and that enthusiasm crossed over into the audience. Each member of the backing band were allowed 20 seconds each to improvise, after E had introduced them, near the end of the main set. The members seemed to love this opportunity to show off. Then there was Butch's speech. Butch was the percussionist, and during the encore, due to public demand he was given a chance to speak. What did he do with his time? Talk about dirt and dust... of course.

The most unlikely of things happened at this gig. There was the fear that because this was in a sit down venue, the gap between the audience and the band would be greater than ever. But this could not be further from the truth. E managed to bridge that gap, bring in audience participation, and make it feel as if they were playing in our front rooms. If only our front rooms would hold over 1000 people.