FUSE TV - Eels Talk 'Royal Albert Hall' DVD/CD, Reflect on All Seven Live Albums

2014's The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett was the fifth Eels album in five years, and the 11th since the 1996 indie rock landmark Beautiful Freak. It was also the first record to put Mr. E—he of the "Beautiful Blues"—front and center, his name and visage there for all to see. The resulting tour was an intimate, career-spanning affair that built to a monumental performance at London's Royal Albert Hall, captured in high-def detail on a new DVD and two-CD release available this week. To celebrate, E spoke with me about his fear of bumming out the audience, heavily reworking his songs over and over, and how he managed to tour an album about cancer and suicide. Our conversation spanned the seven—seven!—live releases the Eels have put out in the last 15 years.

Tell me about the hugs. The DVD ends the same way every show on the tour did—with you walking through the audience and hugging basically every single person you could.

I came up with the list of songs I wanted to play that year, last year, and when we started rehearsing it became apparent to me—"Oh my god, this is just, like, a bummer-fest. This is a lot of sad songs." So I started to slowly try to figure out a way to structure a show that would gradually lift the spirits of the audience, so that by the end of it you would leave happy, like you'd been through something really positive. And the thing that really made it work, I think, was the hugs. At the end of the proper set, I would say—and I really meant this, it was really heartfelt—"Thank you so much for your years of interest, I don't know what I would've done without it; gimme a hug!"

Touching idea, but maybe scary to pull off?

It was fascinating because every night was a different experience. And it was an extremely dangerous, stupid thing to do, and that's why it appealed to me. I don't advise any singers to actually do this, and I'll never do it again [laughs]. Most nights I wouldn't get very far before there would just be a pile of people on me. Some nights people would take advantage of me being in such a vulnerable position and grab my hair or something. I got into a couple fistfights, which was ironic, when I'm trying to thank the audience and hug them. There was actually one fistfight at Royal Albert Hall, it luckily didn't show up on camera [laughs].