Review: Eels

****

When Mark Oliver Everett – that's E to his fans – stood on this same stage last year, he and his band were wearing matching Adidas tracksuits as they breezed through songs from the rocky, upbeat Wonderful, Glorious album. Tonight's dress code is more sombre, but the ambience could not be described as downbeat.

True, the songs from new album The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett are mostly reflective, laid-back, largely piano-based numbers, and the fact that E and his sharp-suited bandmates are playing to a fully-seated venue gives the theatre a bit of a late-night cabaret vibe. But one of the most defining characteristics of Eels is Everett's ability to find comedy in tragedy, and there is enough well-timed humour and droll self-deprecation to temper the painful truths behind many of his songs.

The exceptionally likeable Everett freely pokes fun at his reputation for musical dourness as he runs through a set list of "bummers". Daisies of the Galaxy, a track from the 2000 album of the same name, is superb; the beautiful Where I'm From poignantly references his departed family members with the line "Three ghosts and I sitting on the couch last night", while Lockdown Hurricane is quietly, devastatingly majestic, his bandmates adding a lush soundtrack to his gravelly vocals.

Suddenly Everett rises from his piano stool. "I'm tired of playing bummers," he deadpans, and the show gets an injection of pace and energy with a vibrant Fresh Feeling and a surf-rock rendition of I Like Birds. Mistakes of My Youth, one of his best songs in recent years, finds redemption in the face of aching reminiscence, while the encore includes a cover of The Hollies' 1968 pop hit Jennifer Eccles and a sublime take on Harry Nilsson's Turn On Your Radio. For a finish, he casually slips down the steps of the stage, wanders through the crowd and starts hugging delighted audience members. For those of us who aren't close enough to receive an embrace, the songs are enough.