Eagles of Death Metal - Brixton Academy, London, 24/6/2009

  by Anthony Middleton

published: 24 / 6 / 2009

intro

At the Brixton Academy in London Anthony Middleton quickly finds tiresome American garage rock act Eagles of Death Metal on-stage theatricals and leaden humour

Sometimes the process whereby I come to a decision are an utter mystery to me. A friend without a shred of taste mentioned Eagles of Death Metal, utilising their relationship with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age (who was not on drum duty tonight) as a tool to persuade me of their worth. After a bit of research, I decided it could, indeed, be enjoyable and bought a ticket, despite not knowing anything about them other than they were a rock band and they would endeavour to make their show ‘fun’. Basically this is the joke that brings forth said fun: Lead singer, Jesse ‘The Devil’ Hughes, sports a zapata moustache and tight trousers, tight everything in fact, and, I hope that this is not libellous, but he is a jive-ass mutha fukka. The band, a motley crew of midlife rockers, take to the stage to the accompaniment of the best song we hear all night, 'Ladies Night' by Kool and the Gang. This is the other part of the joke, Eagles of Death Metal are ladies’ men who recently played a women only concert at Madam Jojo’s. At first this is indeed fun, Jesse ‘The Devil’ Hughes sashays around the stage, gurning at women, with a voice borrowed in part from Little Richard and part from a TV evangelist. He flounces, minces and generally camps it up while always staying on the hetro side of the fence. Then they spoil it all by playing some songs. Okay, that’s overstating it a tad. In the vein of Queen of the Stone Age and, say, the Foo Fighters, they are not without some fairly decent material. But I find the constant halting of the show for Jesse ‘The Devil’ Hughes to prance around front of stage, tiresome and the banter to music ratio is practically 1:1. This means no momentum and the whole thing loses shape. Others are equally weary of the horny headed antics of Jesse ‘The Devil’ Hughes and, rather than run the risk of a banter laden encore, a small army charges out the second Eagles of Death Metal finish their initial set.

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