On Thursday It’s All Indie got the chance to attend EDM’s Concert in the “Tonhalle” Munich. Of course it was especially interesting to see the band performing after the horrible terrorist attacks at the Bataclan in Paris, and the concert left us with a wild mixture of thoughts and emotions. It's great that even after such an incident rock ‘n’ roll won’t give up that quickly and that the surely traumatized members of the group still find their way to keep on playing an energetic and impressive gig. But the recent, very questionable, statements about gun-laws or lead singer Jesse Hughes calling himself a “far-right-extremist” gave us a weird side-feeling about Eagles of Death Metal. Still we want to describe our impressions about this night.
On this evening the concert-hall is more crowded than ever, nearly everybody waiting in line could be the singer of an 80’s rock-band him-/herself. There is no police, but security is stricter than ever, though we are not sure if this has something to do with the attacks or just with the bands rapid growth of fame, which it (sadly) also got through the big medial attention. In general the atmosphere is very happy and positive, and as soon the Austrian rock-duo “White Miles” starts, we feel the fans’ excitement. After the the solid warm-up and 45 minutes of waiting the band finally comes on stage while we hear the universally known drinking-hymn “In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus” (In Munich there is a Hofbräuhaus). The band just stands there, enjoying the joyful singing crowd and big applause from nearly 2000 people. After this interesting intro, the show begins with “I Only Want You”. Now pure energy is flowing through the hall, on as well as off stage, while in the background a big “Uncle Sam” is blinking.
This again gets us to think about the beliefs the band or at least Hughes stands for. It’s just not that easy to enjoy a, on musical side, really great show and simultaneously to forget phrases like “Obama is a communist cocksucker”. But the only thing we can do at this point is to quote the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”: “Great, but stupid Rock.” Not to offend anyone, but just to keep in mind that music does influence people and their views, and that not only through lyrics of songs.
This again gets us to think about the beliefs the band or at least Hughes stands for. It’s just not that easy to enjoy a, on musical side, really great show and simultaneously to forget phrases like “Obama is a communist cocksucker”. But the only thing we can do at this point is to quote the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”: “Great, but stupid Rock.” Not to offend anyone, but just to keep in mind that music does influence people and their views, and that not only through lyrics of songs.
To get back to the more fashionable parts of this concert and our quote: Eagles of Death Metal rock very, very good. You can't really sum this up in a sentence or a gig-review, but let's use Alex Tuners’ BritAward speech here: “That rock'n'roll, it just won't go away. It might hibernate from time to time, and sink back into the swamp. But it's always waiting there, just around the corner. Ready to make its way back through the sludge and smash through the glass ceiling, looking better than ever. And this absolutely describes this evening. From “Complexety” to “I Got A Feeling”, the Eagles of Death Metal play everything their fans wanted from their repertoire. The show ends with a fantastic encore and even a Bass Solo-Cover of Scorpion’s “Rock Me Like A Hurricane”.
Still with mixed feelings, but impressed and satisfied, we leave this, in every way, very special show.
Written by Sascha Gontcharov
Still with mixed feelings, but impressed and satisfied, we leave this, in every way, very special show.
Written by Sascha Gontcharov
EDM played:
- (Boots Electric cover)
- Encore:
- (Jesse Hughes Solo)
- Encore 2:
- (Duran Duran cover)
- (Rock you like a Hurricane)
- Speaking in Tongues
