The House of Blues was stunned last night as everyone in the audience was sentenced to "death by sexy" from Eagles of Death Metal after a solid opening by Rival Schools. If you are unfamiliar with Eagles of Death Metal, let me give you a little heads up to what is in store for you at a live show.
Now, Eagles of Death Metal, by name alone, can be misleading. They aren't quite metal, death metal, or any one genre of music in particular. They are just pure rock n roll fueled by the charisma and "voodoo magic" of Jesse Hughes' onstage antics and lyrical style. The very presence of J Devil on the stage was enough to direct the attention of all eyes in the room upon him as he blew kisses to girls, took personal requests for songs from audience members, and played a flawless solo rendition of Taking Care of Business, which he "played a lot in Canada" but wanted "to claim the song, right here in Boston" (seeing as it was their first show back in the USA in a long time) during the "encore" which was more like Part 2 of the night since it went on for nearly another hour, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
All crowd pleasers were played while Jesse, quite literally, pleased the crowd (and offered to please one woman in the audience by saying he would buy her a cherry cola then played the song of the same name). I don't need to list the songs they played because they played every single and hit they've had which EoDM fans know of without my list. I will review some highlights though.
Miss Alissa seemed to spark new energy (if it was even really needed) in the crowd as more people began to dance and chant along with J Devil. A voluptuous woman nicknamed " Miss Coco Bubbles" came onstage for a duet rendition of Prissy Prancin'. Jesse managed to break guitar strings twice and never miss a step or lyric during the mishaps. "The Devil" never lost his cool even when, on four occasions, intoxicated people jumped onstage. Guitarist Dave Catching kept composure and his rock character when a beer was chucked at him mid-song. He appeared startled at first, picked up the beer, and proceeded to chug down what was left of it, throwing the can behind him afterward. This was not the only occasion where an item was thrown onstage. I heard, but did not witness, that J Devil picked up panties, that were sacrificed to him as a gift to "Boots Electric", and sniffed them.
Other highlights include J Devil singing a certain profanity laden song, (see first album) then refusing to swear between songs due to his "momma" being at the show, (she was literally there up in the balcony area behind the stage) the amazing second half of the show which consisted of a flawless cover of Brown Sugar, and finally the extended version of Speaking In Tongues which had the beat dropped out of it for a long time before completely exploding at the end to which audience responded by jumping up in the air as if the floor was on fire.
All this said, I hope I have given those with no background with this band a good gist of what to expect from such a high energy band. Two conclusions come to me from this show in the end; Eagles of Death Metal are the purest and most entertaining rock act out there right now and J Devil is quite possibly - no, scratch that - is MOST DEFINITELY the greatest frontman of our generation. Period.