Eels on Letterman

The Eels are one of those bands I think about looking into every once in a while, so I listen to a few samples but inevitably end up deciding to leave it for another time. They were on Letterman last night (the late night shows are the lazy/cheap person’s way to eventually hear more than 30 seconds of a band). I didn’t pay too much attention to the song, but enjoyed the theatrics of it. The band was the leader, E, singing and playing celeste, an acoustic bass player, a drummer, and a string quartet. Everyone was dressed in pajamas. The best part was the drumming, which used drum cases rather than the drums. It was a perfect depressive scene – no one could get out of their pajamas, the drummer couldn’t summon the energy to pull his kit out of the case. E has a shaggy beard, like someone who’s been out of work a long time. At the end, the string players dropped out one by one and picked up percussion instruments, so all you had was this quiet, muffled, rhythm. E stopped playing, got up, lit a cigar and walked around the stage with a cane, tapping it along with the rattling of the band. It was like a geriatric hoofer, padding around his assisted living apartment. He brought it all to a clean stop with a cue from the cane.

I have a feeling this performance pissed Letterman off. At the end of these shows there is a ritual where the host gets up, walks over to the band, shakes some hands and tells them how great they were. Last night NBC cut to some filler footage. I wonder if we didn’t miss Letterman giving them hell. I’m thinking it might have been because of the cigar – is it illegal to light up like that? Or it just seemed to him like goofing around. After the break he made some comments about the pajamas. I liked that, it reminded me of times I was depressed and didn’t understand it, just knew all I wanted to do was sleep.