Eagles Of Death Metal

There are some things you can get away with saying to a festival crowd and some things you can't. And there are some things which you might be able to get away with, depending upon who you are. To this extent, and for possibly the first time in their short career, E0fDM become victims of their own success, for such has been the hype around Josh Homme's third band that, when they say that this is the biggest crowd they have ever played, not a single person believes them.

Not, of course, that Homme is here. He's always been content to leave the live element of EofDM to his long-time friend and collaborator Jesse Hughes. Which means that, in fact, all that Hughes' announcement does is draw attention to the fact that Homme isn't here. Which, for most of the crowd, is a bit like going to see Motorhead and finding that Lemmy isn't playing. Try as they might, Hughes and co cannot make an impression on the crowd, not helped by the fact that they're peddling some pretty indifferent songs (if English girls were as anodyne as the song of that name, the entire race would die out) and that Hughes has almost not stage presence whatsoever. Avoid.