Customer Reviews
With strings would be better - By: SMB Metal, 04 Mar 2007 
I've been an Eels fan for a number of years & saw them livein Manchester on this tour. It's not Eels' best efforts & the DVD is certainly better than the CD, but as an introduction to Eels, most people should find this CD easy to listen to. E is an amazing musician & doesn't get anywhere near enough credit as he should. I prefer Eels with strings though!
E's a jolly good fellow - By: yformant, 11 Mar 2006 
A highly welcome release, what's on here is good, while, frustratingly, some of what has been left off is even better, but what we are given is an hour of sheer brilliance & eccentricity from E & his ensemble. Highlights include the much-loved It's a Motherf***er, I Like Birds & covers of Pretty Ballerina & Dylan's Girl From the North Country. The audience shows its appreciation between songs & is unintrusive during them, & it's one of the more essential live albums, with many of the tracks reworked and, naturally, benefiting from the live string section. However, the DVD is a superior document of a terrific tour, & Electro-shock Blues is completely ignored, which will disappoint those who believe it to be Eels' best album.
Great live album from world's most under-rated band - By: Lumpster, 28 Feb 2006 
Eels are a great band with a string of fine albums under their belt. Electro Shock Blues, their 2nd album, is a classic & 2005's Blinking Lights started to at last bring Eels the sort of critical acclaim they deserve. This CD is a live show from NYC on the tour that showcased the Blinking Lights release, although the songs have been re-worked with a string quartet. There is a smattering of old material, plus some new covers, & all work well with the atmospheric string & acoustic backing. Not many bands could pull this off, but with the genuis of frontman E & some fantastic musicians, the album works - it could have been a disasterin musical experimentation, but it really flies. The only warning is that if you're into Eels' livlier songs, one of the studio releases may be a better starting point, as the songs on this CD are among the more atomspheric from the Eels back catalogue and, even then, they have been slowed down somewhat (apart from a couple of exceptions, such as Hey Man!). Overall, a great combination of fine songwriting & good musicians & quite unlike any other release you'll listen toin 2006. Highly recommended.
