Eagles of Death Metal shamelessly embrace tight pants, loose women, and hook-driven choruses. They epitomise the fact that you don’t have to take yourself seriously to seriously rock out. Sure they might not be your all-time-favourite band, but EODM sure do put on an entertaining live show.
Fresh from their release of Heart On, they opened the Australian leg of their world tour to a sold-out crowd at The Tivoli. It was EODM’s first Brizvegas gig since their 2007 St Patrick’s Day show at The Arena where Boots Electric, aka frontman Jesse "The Devil" Hughes, dropped all pretences and humbly declared he’d never played a show so great to a crowd so awesome (or along those lines).
This time round they weren’t riding on the boozed-up enthusiasm that comes with St Pats, the fervour of the crowd wasn’t amplified by the echoes of The Arena, and most noteably Hughes was sans superhero cape. Nevertheless we were ready for rock and roll, and true to form EODM rocked out in their obscene hybrid of garage glam revival to an eager audience full of grinding, clapping, stomping, and cheering. Hell, I got vomited on in the crowd by some pissy kid who couldn’t hold his liquor and still managed to have a peachy-keen time.
Boots Electric’s performance was charismatic as always, radiating with all the self-assured swagger and cocksure grinning he could muster from under his rose coloured aviators and 70’s cop moustache. He proudly led the enviable tour line-up of ultra-cool and incredibly talented drummer Joey "The Sexy Mexy" Castillo, the always young at heart "Darlin'" Dave Catching on guitar, and the less known bricky-turned-bassist Brian "Big Hands" O'Connor. Shamelessly utilising EODM's ties to Queens Of The Stone Age talent seemed only fitting given the absence of Hughes's partner in crime Josh "Baby Duck" Homme.
The set was a welcome mix of old and new EODM pure, adulterated debauchery. The new included the glorious Rolling Stones-esque 'Anything ('Cept The Truth)' and smooth harmonies of 'Cheap Thrills', coupled with the tongue in cheek 'Wannabe In LA' and the audacious new title track 'Heart On'. The old kept the audience pumping and thumping with 'I Gotta Feelin (Just Nineteen)' and 'I like to Move in the Night' and of course the unforgettable 'I Want You So Hard'. Even 'Cherry Cola' made it into the encore, leaving the audience on a high as Boots Electric and Sexy Mexy finally departed and the ugly lights were turned back on.
The only disappointment was a brief but flashy cover of the Stone's 'Brown Sugar' that they also played at the St Pats gig, and a lot of their other gigs, choking up the realisation that this one didn’t even go close to raising the bar they set back in 2007. Oh, and this time it was the day before Anzac Day which meant everywhere was closing at midnight and there was nowhere to rock on to after the show. I still made the best of it, rocking on in the cab on the way home, smelling like vomit, but still grinning after a night of energetic entertainment.
I was at both the 2007 arena show and the recent tivoli gig and you're right that this time round wasn't quite as good. Still a very good show.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you contrast the 2 shows, one being the booze-fuelled St pats day crowd and the other, a crowd who knew they had nowhere to continue on afterwards.
A very good review.