only looking forward and moving fast

been rather busy and somewhat passive in terms of thought. hence the lack of writing. it's true that when life takes on a relatively smooth trajectory, you hardly feel it. it's like the difference between speed and acceleration. right now i'm still going pretty fast, but at least the directional changes have become somewhat dampened.

what to talk about? well the eels for one. the concert was quite delightful. it takes a tremendous amount of audacity to make your audience sit through an hour-long documentary about quantum physics. granted that it was entirely integral to the personality of mark everett, the front-and-perhaps-only-man of eels, it was nonetheless quite amazing.

the set itself was also quite unusual. having shed the rest of his band, e brought along a multi-instrumentalist who went by 'the chet', who was tremendous. he played pretty much everything that could be played, and he played most of it quite well. at some point, e and chet traded off on drums and piano, which was quite awesome.

i suppose i was somewhat disappointed by the way some of the songs were interpreted. there were only 2 instruments at once, which reduced the impact of quite a few songs. i would anticipate drums at a certain point in a song, having heard it a million times, only to realize there would be no drums, because the drum set was not occupied. the bass guitar was also sorely missed on many songs.

at the end of the day, it was still entertaining, but in a way which i didn't quite expect. i suppose that is one of the things about them: there is a certain unpredictability in their music which they are trying to capture in front of a live audience that is very familiar with their recordings. they were not afraid to disappoint, but hence made a good show out of it.

the bonus of the show came from how it reintroduced me to a few songs that i had ignored. 'magic world', which gave the title to this post, was particularly wonderful as their opening song. 'in the yard behind the church' sounded so delicate live, while 'bus stop boxer', which i had always stood on the fence about sounded quite delightful. 'climbing to the moon' is beautiful live, and reminded me that i actually really liked that song. and closing with 'p.s. you rock my world' is typical, but at the same time appreciated. there is something raw about all of these songs, which is all the more present when it is being sung right in front of you.