No support act
There was a huge white screen hanging in front of the stage when we entered. Everyone's curiosity levels were up to max. What was going on? It was revealed when the lights went out: instead of a support act, they showed an animation. The theme was loniness and friendship. The film was in an Eastern European language, Russian from what I could tell. The purpose of this piece? I do not know. To urge us to reach out and help lonely people because they are everywhere, or sheer entertainment. I presume it was the first option, but I don't know; the minds of the Eels work in strange ways.
Then the lights went out again, and we expected the screen to drop to reveal the band. But Eels wouldn't be Eels if they didn't enhance the suspension a little more by showing us a second film. This time it was fragments from interviews. Mostly presenters who know nothing more about the band than what was in their information package, resulting in a very pissed off E. who had to keep answering stupid questions.
Eels
The third time the lights went out it was actually the band that came on. The band, plus four extra ladies on strings. The crowd was buzzing, but because everyone was sitting, the atmosphere was unusual. The music was great, however, and they got a well deserved applaus after each songs. The audience was amazingly quiet when the band was playing, but a few songs into the set, E. strummed a chord to start a new song when someone up on the balcony shouted out the title of a song. E. immediately silenced his bandmates and started to address the speaker. What? What was that? What did you just say? Why did you do that? Come on, you obviously felt some kind of pressing urge to share something with everyone in this room, why don't you keep quiet now that I am giving you full attention? He told us to let out everything that we were unable to hold in much longer, because he didn't want to be interrupted again. Several people did and when they were done, E. continued the set. He was in complete control of everything that happened that evening.
I can't give you the setlist, I only know one Eels album and a few random songs, but I can tell you that they played two tracks of Beautiful Freak and several from Daisies of the Galaxy. That I didn't know most of what they played didn't matter at all. They are great performers and an amazing live band. During the second half of the show the audience loosened up a bit and started to clap along to a song. E. was very surprised at how good we were at it. He said he normally doesn't like it when people clap along, because it always ends up in a mess. Not in Groningen! We're good! When he announced the last song he said that if we wanted them to come back for an encore, we should clap, but if we didn't want them to return that was fine too as long as we stayed very quiet then. We didn't of course, so they came back after a while to do two more songs for us. After they said their goodbyes and left, the audience continued to clap and whistle, begging for them to come back. And they did. After two more songs they left again, while we were giving them a standing ovation. We still weren't satisfied though, and called the band on stage for more. Even after that third encore people continued to clap, whistle and make other sounds, in the hope that the band would return. The lights were turned on, the music was already playing and people were leaving, but the remaining crowd conitinued their demand for Eels. After about ten minutes one of the crew walked up to the microphone, telling us that the Eels had left the building. Not! They were very honoured and flattered that we liked them so much and would play yet another extra song! People that had left were running back inside, the remaining crowd got off their seats and walked to the stage. It was amazing. When it was over they had played for two hours! It's great to have a band on stage that is not under strict command by their management and that goes to the trouble of giving their fans everything they have. Three cheers for Eels!
Verdict: Seeing Eels play live is a great experience!