Ya Gotta See Them Live – Eagles of Death Metal

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0:17 Hello and welcome. Ya Gotta See Them Live. Podcast about the power of live music told one band at a time. My name’s Dave. Thank you for joining me for another episode. And this is another hot take. This is a pretty hot hot take because it’s 10 a.m. The next morning after seeing Eagles of Death Metal at Union Transfer. This would have been August 14th, 2026. My first time seeing them, and I had a blast, and it’s still on my mind. So I figure I would get something down on it. If you’re not familiar with Eagles of Death Metal, it’s a misnomer, really. In fact, I was at back-to-back shows just Thursday and Friday nights, and I went to Foo Fighters. And coincidentally, Queens of the Stone Age, the night before I just saw Eagles of Death Metal. And my friend Matt, who was along, knows everything about metal. He’s like the metal guy. In fact, he was wearing some kind of t-shirt at Foo Fighters. I don’t even know what it was. And I’m like, what is that band? He’s like, oh, it’s some satanic thing. That’s this kind of guy. You know, he knows it all.

1:26 And we were talking about Eagles of Death Metal. He’s like, yeah, when that first came out, I was excited. And I went and went to listen to it. It’s not metal at all. It’s not what he was thinking. So it is kind of a misnomer. And it goes along with the sense of humor that the man has because really, what you would consider to me their music. Be garage rock. It’s rock. You heard it there. It’s rock, garage rock. I would say even glam rock a little bit. That 70s kind of sexiness to rock and roll, a bit punky, but it is also very funny and sarcastic. And that has a lot to do. with their lead man. Mr. Jesse Hughes. Which is who I saw last night. So Eagles of Death Metal. And I say coincidentally, having seen Queens of the Stone Age the night before. Eagles of Death Metal were formed in 1988 by Jesse Hughes and Josh Homme. The guy from Queens of the Stone Age. And if I’ve seen interviews with him, he’s like, I’m not, I don’t have, I’m not in one band. I’m in two bands. Like, even though he doesn’t perform with them a lot.

2:34 He still considers himself Part of this band. He co-created it with him. He plays the drums, he wrote the songs. Like, it’s his band, too. And there was a little part of me. that was hoping. Because Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age and Mannequin Pussy, who I didn’t even get in in time to see. Um their day to day break in their tour. Part of me was hoping that Josh Homme would stick around in Philadelphia. and come and play this show. Eagles of Death Metal show with Jesse Hughes, which would have been really cool. And I started talking to some other people in the pit, like we were very close, like a general admission, the whole place. Uh everybody’s very friendly. Also, most of them younger than me, which is starting to get really annoying. at shows, but whatever. I mean, I’m going to go. I was the the the guy that I ended up talking to a lot. And I figured I was like, as soon as I saw him, he was he was kind of loud. I don’t know. He was, I heard him talking about being on Molly. And I’m like, this guy’s going to be a problem. He actually was very nice, and we ended up talking. And he’s like, I just want to let you know I’m going to be banging into you a lot. And I was like, okay, great. You know, one of those kind of things.

3:42 Really nice guy. He and I started talking. He was hoping for the same exact thing. It did not happen. And it was a long shot. Those the those you know, big tours they gotta schedule and they’re exhausted, you know, like for him to. Josh Homme’s my age. I mean, I’m 53. Like, he, uh, for him to do back-to-back-to-back shows, and it’s a lot. So didn’t happen. You still got Jesse Hughes. Boots Electric himself and he leads the show. like uh almost like a revival. He is he is so funny. He’s leading the crowd in song. He’s dancing all over the place. He’s talking about this song. I wrote this song because I wanted to shake my dick. And that’s what I’m going to do right now. I’m going to shake my dick for you. It’s like that the whole time. After every song, and he’s talking to people, he does the line from the warriors that Cyrus does. Can you dig it? So he’s doing that. And then he’s like, by the way, who knows what that’s from? And people yell out, the Warriors. And he was like blown away. He’s like, I do tons of shows. And I asked what movie that’s from. And nobody fucking knows. And you guys knew. He probably says that every show too.

4:53 I would classify him as one of the most enigmatic front men. That I’ve ever seen. Really fantastic. And he even talked about Josh Homme saying, you know, he’s his brother. He loves him to death. And he was like and he said something about him being there. And he made a joke. He’s like, I wouldn’t let that motherfucker on this stage. I’m too vain. I don’t want anybody looking at him. I want everybody looking at me. Which everybody was doing. You can’t take your eyes off the guy. But they are really dear friends. I know that I read a story about Jesse Hughes getting really had a had a really bad drug problem. Josh Homme. drove him to rehab, paid for his rehab, like I think. I think they’re still really Pretty dear friends. But the show was great. It was the 20th anniversary of Death by Sexy, which is by far their biggest album. And they played the album. Top to bottom. And when I was first listening to them. And I said they came out in 1998. I’m thinking like 2004-ish. I remember my son being very little. He was still a toddler. But this is what I was listening to on the way to work. I listened to this album over and over again.

6:04 And they played it in order. And the first half of that album. is stuff I know very well. Back half, not as much, but still good. And then they did an encore where they played some of their other songs from other albums like I Only Want You and Anything ‘Cept the Truth. They actually did a Heroes, David Bowie “Heroes” cover at the end. Really fantastic. In order. I Want You So Hard. I Got a Feelin’. Cherry Cola, which I just played. I Like to Move in the Night. Solid Gold. Don’t Speak (I Came to Make a Bang!) is probably their biggest song, but they don’t really have a hit. Yeah, I guess if you’re going to get one, that’s the closest. Here’s a little snippet of what I heard last night. So there’s always somebody there filming. I don’t film. I mean, I usually take a little snippet and send it to Tim.

7:22 From Pass the Popcorn. Cause he and I trade concert photos a lot, but I don’t. I’m there to watch a show. There’s so many people every time a song comes up, especially in a general admission. Everybody puts their phone on, and because they have to see over everybody else, they all put their phone way up in the air. So all you’re doing is looking through a sea of phones. I’ve watched songs. on the phone of the person standing in front of me, which sucks. Enjoy it. Like, you got, I know you want to put it on your social media and be like, look at me. I’m so cool. I’m at this show. Just fucking enjoy it because you ruin it for the people behind you. Nobody’s listening to this. But that’s my public service to people that go to shows. Um Jesse Hughes did mention the tragedy. That Eagles of Death Metal had to endure in Paris in 2015. It was the Bataclan Theater. really a terrorist attack, ISIS terrorist attack. Eighty-nine people died. One of them was their merchandise manager or something like that. Jesse Hughes and members of the band even had to testify in the trial.

8:25 And there’s a documentary about that too. It’s very, very sad. And he did mention it. Just in passing, saying, like, you know, rock and roll can take you places. And I’ve been through really high highs and the lows, lows, and tragedies in my life. But you know, you gotta persevere kind of thing. But it was a really friendly crowd and everybody was into it. Union Transfer. This is my first time there, actually. It’s on Spring Garden Street in Philadelphia. If you ever come to Philadelphia and see a show there. I’m definitely going back. It was it was the kind of place that I like. It’s small. And everything’s general admission. There’s balconies on the sides, and then just a large general admission pit of whatever you want to call it, bars on the sides. You probably have a place like this in your city. This one’s really neat and it’s old, old woodwork. It’s a gorgeous building. I looked it up because I wanted to know what Union Transfer even was. And it seems like back in the railroad days when the trains would go through Philadelphia to like New York or.

9:25 Boston or wherever, union transfer was where they did the luggage. So your luggage was going to Union Transfer to be put on like different trains and things like that. I love places that have like an old interesting history like that. So I had a blast. Uh it wasn’t a long show. pretty quick because there the sh song he even said during the thing, he’s like, man. That song was short. And I’m like, yeah, you wrote it. You know, like, these are short. Heavy hitters. They get you dancing. Get you feeling good. Get you bumped into by the guy that I met last night. It was one of those kind of shows. pouring down sweat. And this was two nights in a row for me. Like, I mean, I w I’m not ready to do the Foo Fighters. Episode of this. because Thursday night was the fifth time. That I’ve seen Foo Fighters, and this was a stadium show. It was at Lincoln Financial Field where the Eagles play. So there was probably 70,000 people there.

10:26 And we were in the pit. We were up on the rail almost. I mean, I could have I could have hit Dave Grohl with a paper airplane. We were so close. So I was like, I’m not ready to do that. But I knew what I was doing this show the next night. And I just needed to get this off my chest. So thank you for listening. This tour is pretty fresh. If you can see it. Anywhere in your city, I totally recommend it. It’s a, it was a party and an inclusive party. And I really enjoyed it. So there was an opener. They were called Mountain Head, who I had never heard before. And I actually enjoyed them a lot. They have the, I guess, their shtick is. When you walk out, they kinda look like Mumford and Sons. Amish? I guess that’s an Amish thing they’re going for. They all have the flat-brimmed hats. The long beards. The dr I mean all of them, the drummer and the two lead guys. And the mo music was kinda like Eagles of Death Metal, but not even as hard. It was kind of a mellow.

11:28 rock kind of groove. When you see these guys you’re thinking, what the fuck am I about to listen to? They had choreography. And they were very dedicated to the choreography and it wasn’t much. But it was them standing very still and then turning their heads left and right and up and down at certain times. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mountain Head catches on. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if I never hear of him again after I stop thinking about this show. But it was fun. I would recommend Mountain Head, I guess, even as somebody that I might investigate a little more because you never know what you’re getting yourself into with an opening act. But these guys fit. The vibe. That kinda sarcastic. Who gives a fuck? Let’s just have a party vibe. And that’s what you get at an Eagles of Death medal show that I just found out last night. I’ve been a fan for a long time. I can finally put them on my list. So thank you for listening to this, and I’ll see you at the show.

12:30 [Music]