The ever-changing project of principal singer/songwriter Mark Oliver Everett, aka E, EELS have released 10 studio albums since their 1996 debut, Beautiful Freak. legendary troubadour Tom Waits says he “eagerly awaits each new release.” In 2008 E published his highly acclaimed book Things the Grandchildren Should Know and starred in the award-winning Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives documentary about the search to understand his quantum physicist father, Hugh Everett III. In 2009, EELS began the release of an album trilogy: Hombre Lobo, End Times and Tomorrow Morning, followed three years later by 2013’s Wonderful, Glorious and The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett in 2014.

EELS’ live video for “I Like Birds,” from the forthcoming concert film and live album EELS-Royal Albert Hall, which they have premiered today.

In May 2014, EELS embarked on an ambitious 53-show world tour. Starting in Phoenix, Arizona and crossing the United States and Canada before rolling through mainland Europe and Great Britain, the band performed shows at New York’s Apollo, Chicago’s Vic Theater, Los Angeles’ Orpheum Theater, The Montreux Jazz Festival and The Amsterdam Concert Hall, among many others. On the night of June 30, EELS returned to London’s legendary Royal Albert Hall for the first time in nine years to play a stunning show that was filmed and recorded.

In sharp contrast to the previous EELS tour that found the band in track suits playing high octane electric rock & roll, this EELS show was “a gentlemen’s EELS concert,” as E, puts it. Filmed by 12 cameras at Royal Albert Hall, the new film and album find EELS dapperly dressed in suits and ties, and all five band members stretching their musical capabilities past new boundaries, playing songs from 2014’s The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett for the first time along with songs spanning the the band’s 19-year career. When they played Royal Albert Hall in 2005, they were accompanied by a string section; this time there are only the five core members of the band on stage throughout the concert, splitting their time between guitar, piano, pedal steel guitar, trumpet, upright and bowed bass, melodica, vibraphone, timpani, drums, concert chimes and glockenspiel.

The film features the band backstage preparing for the big night and captures the entire show from start to finish, as it happened, including E kissing the spot where John Lennon once stood on the stage, making his way to hug fans all the way around Albert Hall’s massive floor and returning for several encores.

EELS—ROYAL ALBERT HALL

Performed by E, The Chet, Royal Al, P-Boo and Knuckles

Directed by Charlie Lightening

Released by E Works/PIAS

EELS—ROYAL ALBERT HALL FILM/ALBUM TRACK LIST

SHOW
01 WHERE I’M AT
02 WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR
03 THE MORNING
04 PARALLELS
05 ADDRESSING THE ROYAL AUDIENCE
06 MANSIONS OF LOS FELIZ
07 MY TIMING IS OFF
08 A LINE IN THE DIRT
09 WHERE I’M FROM
10 IT’S A MOTHERFUCKER
11 LOCKDOWN HURRICANE
12 A DAISY THROUGH CONCRETE
13 INTRODUCING THE BAND
14 GRACE KELLY BLUES
15 FRESH FEELING
16 I LIKE BIRDS
17 MY BELOVED MONSTER
18 GENTLEMEN’S CHOICE
19 MISTAKES OF MY YOUTH/WONDERFUL, GLORIOUS
20 WHERE I’M GOING
Encore 1:
21 I LIKE THE WAY THIS IS GOING
22 BLINKING LIGHTS (FOR ME)
23 LAST STOP: THIS TOWN
Encore 2:
24 THE BEGINNING
25 CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE
26 TURN ON YOUR RADIO
Phantom Encore:
27 FLYSWATTER
28 THE SOUND OF FEAR