Eagles Of Death Metal Get Peaches' Party Started

It's rarely a bad thing when a show you're going to see is downgraded to a smaller venue. Who doesn't want to see their favourite artist in more intimate confines? One of the significant exceptions in Toronto is when a show gets moved from the Kool Haus to the Guvernment. People may complain about the Kool Haus, but it has decent sound and great sightlines, two things the Guvernment sorely lacks. At the very least, however, moving the Peaches/Eagles Of Death Metal bill to the venue meant the concert would be packed — for one of the acts, anyway.

There was barely an inch to move in the room when EODM hit the stage. Their first Toronto appearance seemed more like a homecoming. The crowd was charged up from the second Jesse Hughes' moustache hit the stage. "Don't Speak (I Came To Make A BANG!)" was the first of many songs that featured false endings, but Hughes' manic energy and posturing got the applause level turned to "high," where it stayed for the remainder of the set.

The showmanship compensated for the relatively muddy acoustics in the building. Things were pretty bad off the top, but got progressively better as the sound people worked to fix as many of the problems as they could.

Death By Sexy was the focus of the Eagles' 50-minute set. Hughes announced they wanted to do something special for their first visit to Toronto and played oddball track "The Ballad Of Queen Bee And Baby Duck" for the first time live to fulfill that promise. The new record features a number of songs that could be hit singles, and some of them, including "Cherry Cola" and the stellar grinder, "I Gotta Feeling (Just Nineteen)" were among the set highlights.

The real high point, though, was Hughes' between-song banter. Frequently asking if he could get an "Amen" and praising Toronto's female population, this felt like a rock show of the highest order.

The loudest cheers were reserved for material from Peace, Love, Death Metal, which was sparsely littered amongst the majority of Death By Sexy. "Kiss The Devil," "I Only Want You," "Stuck In The Metal," "Whorehoppin" and set closer "Speaking In Tongues" (EODM's best song, period) meshed well with the new tracks and benefited greatly from full instrumentation.

It was clear who the people had come to see. Forty per cent of the audience cleared out as a shirtless Hughes took a bow with a gaggle of girls who came up for a dance party during the final song. That's kind of a shame, because Peaches was truly in her element for what actually was a homecoming show.Playing through much of her new XL release, Impeach My Bush, kids were dancing, her band were on fire and the fuzzy one herself was at her straddleriffic best. It was a fine contrast to her lacklustre set at the Molson Amphitheatre a few weeks earlier on the Nine Inch Nails tour, though musically it remained just as same-y as before.

"Two Guys For Every Girl" might be the highlight of Peaches' new material, but it isn't really breaking any new ground for the singer. If she decides to make a true directional shift and tones down the monotone electro-rock just a tad, it's possible she'll make believers out of everyone. For now, it's still mostly just for the hardcore devotees.