Nothing says summer like an Eels show in Minneapolis in early October, especially with the singer dressed up like a Taliban reject. Or at least that seemed to be the impression Mark (E) Everett and his band of woolly bearded gentlemen wanted to make last night at First Ave. Not only did all five guys in the band boast bushels of facial hair, they each also wore dark sunglasses as if it were 95 and sunny. Those shades could've been seen on several levels of symbolism: It's still summertime in their eyes; they still wear a dark tint even while playing brighter songs, etc. Or you could've also taken the sunglasses to be a reflection of the show's relative hokeyness.

Much rockier and more energetic than a typical Eels show, at times it felt forced and disingenuous. Not that I'm complaining about E throwing out free popsicles to the three-quarters-full crowd. Their two summer-related cover songs -- Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City" and Gershwin's "Summertime" -- were quite smoking-hot musically, but they awkwardly fit in with the original songs (I did dig the gnarly version of the Stones/Larry Williams' "She Said Yeah"). Even the between-song banter felt canned, like when guitarist "The Chet" corrected E about it not being summer anymore ("Let's blow some summer up these people's ass!" E said; Chet was leaning into E's ear to make the correction even before E had finished his statement).

In terms of the set list, Eels have actually been mixing things up quite a bit on tour, but I noticed that last night's set weirdly was a near-exact duplicate of a recent show at the 9:30 Club in D.C. Coincidence, or no? There were certainly plenty of moments worth replicating, including the three-song opening montage where E played solo through "Daisies of the Galaxy" and built up to Chet playing pedal-steel with him for a gorgeous "End Times" before the whole band came out. More mellow moments like that would have been nice, but some of the rockier stuff did come off well, including the strobe-enhanced pairing of "Fresh Blood" and "Dog Faced Boy" and the gospelized finale "Looking Up." Even if it were July, though, I might suggest the guys still try to put on more of autumnal kind of show. Here's the set list:

Daisies of the Galaxy / Little Bird / End Time / Prizefighter / She Said Yeah (Stones/Larry Williams) / Gone Man / Summer in the City / Tremendous Dynamite / In My Dreams / In My Younger Days / Paradise Blues / Jungle Telegraph / My Beloved Monster / Spectacular Girl / Fresh Blood / Dog Faced Boy / That Look You Give That Guy / Souljacker pt. 1 / Talkin' Bout Knuckles / Mr. E's Beautiful Blues / I Like Birds / Summertime (Gershwin) / Looking Up ENCORE 1: That's Not Her Way ENCORE 2: Baby Loves Me