I dragged myself down to the Pyramids in Portsmouth tonight, for the Eagles of Death Metal gig; what a soulless venue that is, makes the Brighton Centre seem cosy & intimate - all the warmth of a wet Sunday in McDonalds, and just twelve quid to get in, ha!, oh, and another twenty if you wanted a t-shirt; cheap at half the price eh?, err no. The dreadful place was packed though, even had some ticket touts trying their luck outside, so obviously a pretty popular bunch.
One for the fans, I'd say - since the band went down very well indeed, although the crowd was strangely quiet & mostly stationary during the songs, which sound much heavier & Rock and Roll than they do on record; but speaking of songs, I really think they need a writer - there was presence, Attitude (with a capital A), some storming good riffs, and, and... not too much else.
They make a great, if doubtless expensive, covers band - I thought the punters only really got going for their rockin' cover of 'Stuck In The Middle' (the Stealers Wheel number), and 'Brown Sugar' - beyond those, only 'I Want You So Hard', 'Anythin' cept the Truth' & 'Wannabe in LA' made any impression on me... suuure, the audience whooped & hollered at the plainly familiar intro riffing to many others, but the actual songs lacked a deal of substance for this unconvinced listener, - maybe Axl Rose was right? , probably not, of course - in fact I like 'em more now just for that.
You're thinking I'm not a die-hard fan?, and you'd be right, fairly obviously; and they're good, you know, but with some properly memorable songs, they'd be so much better.
♫ Wannabe in LA - Eagles of Death Metal
Heart On (2008)
buy | myspace | website
If you get this far, you deserve to know that Davey Jo, the guitarist, looked like my Granddad, with a mohican - not good; so blame my apathy on that, if you will.
One for the fans, I'd say - since the band went down very well indeed, although the crowd was strangely quiet & mostly stationary during the songs, which sound much heavier & Rock and Roll than they do on record; but speaking of songs, I really think they need a writer - there was presence, Attitude (with a capital A), some storming good riffs, and, and... not too much else.
They make a great, if doubtless expensive, covers band - I thought the punters only really got going for their rockin' cover of 'Stuck In The Middle' (the Stealers Wheel number), and 'Brown Sugar' - beyond those, only 'I Want You So Hard', 'Anythin' cept the Truth' & 'Wannabe in LA' made any impression on me... suuure, the audience whooped & hollered at the plainly familiar intro riffing to many others, but the actual songs lacked a deal of substance for this unconvinced listener, - maybe Axl Rose was right? , probably not, of course - in fact I like 'em more now just for that.
You're thinking I'm not a die-hard fan?, and you'd be right, fairly obviously; and they're good, you know, but with some properly memorable songs, they'd be so much better.
♫ Wannabe in LA - Eagles of Death Metal
Heart On (2008)
buy | myspace | website
If you get this far, you deserve to know that Davey Jo, the guitarist, looked like my Granddad, with a mohican - not good; so blame my apathy on that, if you will.
twenty quid for a tshirt?
ReplyDeletewere they decent quality?
i'd like to know, as i am seeing the EoDM tonight at Leeds
:)
Thanks
Sorry, I didn't get a close look, but they'd better be, at that price. Don't forget your moustache, whether man or woman, lotsa boys n girls sporting false ones.
ReplyDeleteThe Hot Melts are worth getting there early enough for, I imagine they'd sound pretty good in a venue with better sound, as would EoDM have done. Jessie did some wicked guitar solos, btw.
i was there too, i really quite enjoyed it and thought jesse did a great job especially
ReplyDeleteyeah, I was probably (well, definitely) a bit harsh, or at least lukewarm - I blame the gits with the bicycle horn who kept with the toot-tooting, to almost everyone's annoyance, even after they got a mention from Jesse.
ReplyDeletejust remembered, what's with all the lights illuminating the audience?
I mentioned the memorable songs thing to one of my mates, who is quite a fan, and to my surprise, he thought the same. they got a bit Jon Spencer'ish at one point, I thought - which was cool. I dunno how the drummer doesn't break a ton of sticks, he absolutely smashes the kit.
you may not agree with the quality of what was produced, but you can't deny that EoDM are great performers when it comes to live shows. I, myself, love the music they make.
ReplyDeleteyou're right, no denying that; and it's not really 'quality' I meant, more just that at that particular gig, there seemed to be all the ingredients of something amazing, but it didn't quite go together memorably (for me, and I'm clearly in the minority). I'm enjoying the last album much more now, having seen how much heavier they are live, first impressions some weeks ago were that it was a bit lightweight.
ReplyDeleteTa for taking the time to comment, and actually being polite - I don't deserve it, ha!.
I think the crowd would've been a little less stationary if the interior of that hell hole hadn't been hotter than the surface of the sun...
ReplyDeleteahh, good point - the heating was set a little high, perhaps to encourage patrons towards the easily accessible bar areas.
ReplyDeleteI was there and it was brilliant, wasn't too keen on the million bottles of water that the stewards or whatever poured over both myself and my camera, i was abit disapointed after reading in kerrang that josh would be on the drums, i can't believe they chose to play 'stuck in the middle' over 'cherry cola' haaa
ReplyDeleteah yes, more than a few people wanted cherry cola. At least the water was better than glasses of beer that some o the crowd were tossing.
ReplyDelete