The Post-Rockist

“Hold on to your seats,” announced the enthusiastic 50-some-year-old sound guy at Detroit’s Corktown Tavern, “’cause High Anxiety is up next!”

The High Strung - “Rimbaud/Rambo”

from Get the Guests

Detroit’s The High Strung has been around for awhile, and around the country quite a few times. Singer/Lyricist/Guitarist Josh Malerman, Bassist Chad Stocker, and Drummer Derek Berk have recorded three albums–including a Post-Rockist favorite of 2007, Get the Guests–traveled thousands of miles, and played hundreds of shows at bars, clubs, and libraries. They’re working on a new album now in Canada with David Newfeld, who has produced the likes of Broken Social Scene and the Los Campesinos. It was a pretty packed crowd for the Corktown Tav and the fans were jumping and singing along with the mix of old songs and new, as The High Strung kept it up tempo for most of the show, keeping all ballads but the excellent “Arrow” off of the setlist (a bit of a shame, since “Watch Me Sustain the Early Days,” “Childhood,” and “The Meddler” are my faves).

A couple of weeks ago, the band sent a MySpace bulletin asking fans to help them name the new album. I always like the conversations that a band has with the audience, particularly if both are a bit inebriated. So, High Strung, I submit these two phrases that came out of your own mouths during the show as the title of the new LP:

“Take the Gold Teeth Off a Dead Corpse”

“Like Eating Tin Foil”

I like the first one best, but I could live with the second. Let’s make it happen.

Eels - Flyswatter

from Meet the Eels: Essential Eels, Vol 1, originally from Daisies of the Galaxy

On Saturday night, I couldn’t keep from seeing Eels, even though I’ve seen them 3-4 times previously. Like the “Eels with Strings” tour of two years hence, the show was seated, but I stood through the entire thing because I’m super authentic and punk and stuff. Mark Oliver Everett, aka Mr. E, aka. E entered the darkly lit stage silently in sunglasses, a baseball cap, and car mechanic-style jumpsuit, sat down, was handed a crappy Danelectro guitar, and started apace, playing a song from Blinking Lights and Other Revelations. Moving from a crappy guitar to a beautiful piano at stage left, he sat down with his back to the audience (typical) and played a speedy version of “It’s a Motherfucker.” I was a bit nervous at the speed with which Mr. E worked through the songs–it made it seem like he was rushing through to the finish. Perhaps he was. Luckily, his speed was slowed when he introduced “The Chet,” his all-purpose, multi-instrumentalist cohort, in matching mechanic scrubs. It turned out to be just the two of them for the entire show.

In addition to accompanying E on drums, organ, piano, slide guitar, percussion, bow and saw, and a couple of other instruments I’ve never seen before, The Chet also read large excerpts from Everett’s new book. Apparently, Mr. E wrote an autobiography, titled Things the Grandchildren Should Know, out in the US in the Fall but currently available in the UK and Australia right now. I wish there were Torrent sites for books. Mr. E sat at the piano with his arms crossed watching The Chet read.

For awhile, I started feeling really old. I mean, I was at a show in support of a Greatest Hits album. There was a reading from a book. Mr. E and The Chet partook of the kind of chuckly banter that tells you that these guys didn’t really practice or worry about putting on a show. It kind of felt like Eels turned the Majestic into a coffeehouse. It was a no smoking show.

But I think it was during “Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor” (from Electro-shock Blues, and one of the most disturbing opening tracks on any album) that I realized why I was there. I mean, I’m spending my Saturday night watching some 40-year-old guy with a scratchy voice (for reals, I thought he had distortion on his mic until the third song when I realized that’s how he sings now), strumming a crummy Danelectro guitar while sitting down playing a bunch of songs that I listened to in the 90s. And why?

The beauty of some of his songs: “Jeanie’s Diary,” “It’s a Motherfucker,” “Railroad Man,” “P.S. You Rock My World,” “Wooden Nickels.”* They’re timeless. They’re haunting. They live in my soul. I haven’t heard some of these songs since the last time I saw Eels live two years ago, but I remember all the words, all the orchestrations. I realized that this band means as much to me as The Beatles, Dylan, The Kinks.

It was at this point when I stopped yawning and starting really listening. And the show got better. During “Flyswatter,” Mr. E switched instruments–piano for drums–with The Chet without missing a beat, E taking over first one drum stick, then the other, then the kick drum, then the high hat, and played a killer drum solo, allowing The Chet to walk over to the piano to play a jazz-influenced variation on the theme, after which they switched back again. Mr. E even loosened up, giving us a history lesson of the venue (apparently, The Majestic wasn’t the site of Houdini’s last performance), calling us his “Motor Babies” and cracking Ted Nugent jokes.

Although his encore of Dylan’s “Girl from North Country” on the piano felt kind of tired, it turned out to be a pretty emotional show–nostalgic, even. Is this how my dad’s friends feel when they go see Foghat or The Moody Blues or Little Feet for $35 every summer? If so, then I’ll be one of those old guys going to see Eels at the Fox Theatre or The Palace in 2020, finding a babysitter, and perhaps drinking like I was back in my twenties again, listening to the Eels.

–Posted by Scotter

*Eels didn’t play all of these songs–these are just my faves.