The greatest thing about going to an Eels concert is in not knowing what you’re going to get. No matter what you’ve seen Mark ‘E’ Everett do in the past, he’s bound to pull out new tricks, which makes the prospect of seeing him live as exciting as that first time you get to see one of your favourites. Last time he was here, Eels were no more than a duo, performing theatre shows in support of their greatest hits compilation – complete with a feature length documentary, autobiographical readings, booming voiceovers and piano led ballads. This was a new story, if ever there was one.

Opening the night in one of many interesting choices of the evening was a ventriloquist, who appeared for her short set well over an hour after doors opened. With her hand up the backside of her feline counterpart, she accused the crowd of being hippies and continued with a selection of daggy jokes – the crowd’s sentiments toward her evident by the rising level of noise on the floor as her 15 minutes progressed.

Musically supporting for the evening was local songstress Laura Imbruglia who, as it happens, couldn’t get much more attention than the ventriloquist before her. Playing songs mostly from her new album, she summed up her attitude when she introduced the song Surly, complemented by its oh-so-glum lyrics, “it picks me up to put you down”. Musically, Imbruglia sounds somewhat like a one-woman Tegan and Sara, but eventually her songs melded a little too much and it all seemed a little unexciting.

The crowd had certainly earned Eels by the time 10 o’clock rolled around – early door times had meant bugger all and the full room was certainly shuffling with impatience. When the lights went down, on came When You Wish Upon a Star, in its entirety, and eventually, in all his bearded glory E appeared front and centre.

Dressed as some kind of pirate-dentist in his bandanna, shades and white jumpsuit combo, E looked quite the rock star for this performance, which was telling of what was to come and a serious turnaround from such a casual look on his last tour. The rock and roll was certainly on its way but to begin with, a calm trio of songs would kick things off – E joined by The Chet on lapsteel for the latter of these.

E had been standing there – still and pensive – for a good ten minutes, so when the full band appeared on stage and rolled into the opening chords of Prizefighter, he was quick to strike a pose, and the rock blues bombardment that was to overrule the set began. E’s yelps pounded through the venue, his rough vocal getting heads bobbing along in true rock approval. The growling continued and soon a cover of In The Summertime appeared, E proclaiming (in the very little banter he produced all night): “Fuck winter, we’re here to blow sunshine up your arses” – oh what rollicking joy it all was.

Of E’s “28 transitory members”, the night’s band consisted of four other than himself. And what a band they were – decked out so suave they could have been lifted straight outta the Blue Brothers. He needed the extra hands to pull off the heavier show he was delivering, and he sure as hell picked a cool bunch for that very purpose.

Perhaps unsurprisingly (though who can really say that with an Eels gig), the set was dominated by the recent Eels trilogy of 2009-10. With nine albums under the Eels belt, it may have seemed strange that the set went for only 80 minutes, but in actual fact the band ploughed through heaps of tunes. E wasn’t stopping between tracks and in most instances, he had his next guitar in hand before the current song had even finished. With minimal banter, there was a lot of music on show.

Within that swag, Eels were pulling style shifts that were at times hard to get your ears around; for instance, flipping from the hard and heavy Dynamite to the airy In My Dreams, or Spectacular Girl being followed by Fresh Blood without pause. They seemed to change all willy-nilly throughout the set, often getting the mood just right within three or four songs before pulling a 180 and calling for the crowd to readjust.

In E’s interview with FasterLouder, he warned that some old favourites might be changed up a bit, stating: “you may hear one of your favourite songs and not even realise it was your favourite song because we did it so differently from the last time you heard it on the radio”. He wasn’t lying. The gorgeous My Beloved Monster was given the devil’s treatment, converted into a whole new funk version. I Like Birds suffered a similar fate, taking on a super-charged tempo and heavy blues influence. Can’t say we hadn’t been warned, but these couple certainly took a few by surprise – whether that surprise was good or not is a question of how attached you were to the originals.

The surprises didn’t end there. Next was the reworked Mr E’s Beautiful Blues, sung to the tune of the Beatles’ Twist and Shout and further chaos in a whacky rock version of Summertime (Eels evidently keeping a theme across the covers), in which E produced a cooler from the back of stage and tossed ice creams into the crowd. Definitely not expected. And can a guy with a bushman beard, dressed as a yuppie tradesman play guitar on his maraca? E certainly can.

E managed a fine job of rounding out the show, too – demonstrating how he just may have lost his calling as a gospel singer on Looking Up. Belting out some screeches and shaking his way through to the end, E made several attempts to shuffle off the stage before he eventually did so, leaving the band to jam out the conclusion.

Reappearing moments later for two encores, E performed I’m Going To Stop Pretending That I Didn’t Break Your Heart with the full band – the song proving to be one of the few oldies of the night that stayed true to itself. The downbeat and longing track was a sure way away from the main set’s rollicking conclusion, but often the best encores are the ones unexpected.

Just as the last time they were in the country, Eels’ managed to prove just what a great live act they are. With three albums of new material on show and a choice selection of (reworked) favourites, E and the band left everyone suitably impressed yet again.

CHECK OUT PHOTOS FROM THE NIGHT HERE