By Lisa Burke
December 13th 2016, Teragram Ballroom, Los Angeles CA: Things aren’t always what they seem is the understatement of the year especially when viewing new incarnations of old bands, or bands with oddly misleading titles. Last Tuesday at the Teragram Ballroom in downtown Los Angeles, I attended the first show of a two-night benefit for Dave Rosser who is fighting colon cancer and has made his mark in bands such as The Gutter Twins and Afghan Whigs. The second night of the benefit featured the latest version of Afghan Whigs while on this first night it featured headliner Eagles Of Death Metal along with support from Josh Homme, guitarist from Queens Of The Stone Age, and an interesting version of a band that seemingly rejoined especially for this occasion, The Gutter Twins featuring guest artist Duff McKagan.
To start off the evening in a classy rock n’ roll way, The Gutter Twins took the stage primarily featuring Mark Lanegan as a lead vocalist who is also known for his work in Queens Of The Stone age and Screaming Trees. The Gutter Twins was formed by Lanegan and Greg Dulli as vocalists and on this occasion there were eight members on stage, one of which was a female violinist and another, as I mentioned above, was Duff McKagan from Guns N’ Roses on bass and guitar and some vocals. While The Gutter Twins were very short lived, they had a decently varied album out there in 2008 called ‘Saturnalia’ that brings in some jazz elements to their classy soft rock and alternative vibe. They staggered from this album’s classics such as ‘The Stations’ and ‘God’s Children’ to play ‘Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory’ and ‘It’s So Easy’, led by Duff McKagan, of course, and while they were mostly well played, this happened to be the moment, especially during ‘It’s So Easy’ where it was apparent just how much lack of rehearsal may have went into this show and Duff had to keep the beat from running wild proving the fact that it’s not really as easy as it claims to be. The stage at this medium sized venue is not small yet with eight occupants it became very crowded which did not help the band’s eloquence. All in all, Mark gave it his all as did Duff, and the mood was established for a somber yet entertaining set full of professional musicians working and playing for a noble cause.
The Gutter Twins set list:
01. Belles (Vetiver cover)
02. The Stations
03. Spanish Doors
04. God’s Children
05. Live With Me (Massive Attack cover)
06. We Have Met Before
07. You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory
08. It’s So Easy
09. Number Nine (The Twilight Singers cover)
While all that sounded good, it was just that the next set was half light-hearted while the other half was just half-assed. Josh Homme from Queens Of The Stone Age graced the stage with an all acoustic guitar set in which he played hap hazard and made a mess of his jokes. Was this the comedic intention? Perhaps, but this is a benefit for a man with colon cancer and daring to cover some great artists such as Dean Martin and Cab Calloway is a challenge that one must not make light of while performing their songs because this is in no way a funny subject. He brought Matt Sweeney on stage to jam a third of the way through his seemingly endless, average-at-best six song set. Matt was a welcomed edition, but he basically went through the motions that Josh put on blast including his “fuck Trump” joke that got the crowd in a roaring clapping frenzy, and that was that.
Josh Homme set list:
01. Long Slow Goodbye (Queens of the Stone Age song)
02. Spinning in Daffodils (Them Crooked Vultures song)
03. Villains of Circumstance
04. Memories Are Made of This (Dean Martin cover, w/ Matt Sweeney)
05. Dark as a Dungeon (Merle Travis cover, w/ Matt Sweeney)
06. Minnie the Moocher (Cab Calloway cover, w/ Matt Sweeney)
Finally, Eagles Of Death Metal paced up and down the stage in chaotic motions and while they are among the more popular highly recommended rock n’ roll/alternative bands out there, they have the most non-sensical name as even if you take it with a grain of sarcasm you are left high and dry wondering what possessed such an opposition to reality. There is nothing death metal at all about them, but they definitely don’t relate themselves to the Eagles either. They instead correlate to the likes of ZZ Top, Red Hot Chili Peppers and a minor amount of The B-52’s. The drummer was excellent in all ways, especially the unusual timing, except the idea of mounting a tambourine and a cowbell to the drum set became a hostile hipster take-over regardless of its unusually striking intention. When playing songs called ‘Silverlake’, swaying out of the hipster alt rock nation is a challenge but it can be done, provided the theory of less cowbell is more cowbell is applied. The singing and guitar were of the highest quality in the entertainment factor and the music has the capability to sell itself. There is soul and funk happening in the harmonizing, and then when the singer gets mockingly preachy it is what it is although usually not taken seriously, so the fun surpasses all. In addition to their staple songs including ‘Whorehoppin’ and ‘I like To Move In The night’, they also played two well-done, highly stylized covers of Duran Duran’s ‘Save A Prayer’ and David Bowie’s ‘Moonage Daydream’ which were as off-the-norm as they could be, but still lent well to the set list. One key signature of these guys is that they don’t stick to one time signature, as in they start and stop and spin in circles through some of their songs which keeps the interest and steps them up to the plate in alternative rock.
Overall, a good evening of unexpected interest that seemed to possess enough diversity that an eclectic crowd of patrons could and did enjoy for a noble and sadly all too familiar cause.
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Eagles Of Death Metal set list:
01. I Only Want You
02. Don’t Speak (I Came to Make a Bang!)
03. Complexity (Boots Electric cover)
04. Whorehoppin’ (Shit, Goddamn)
05. Silverlake (K.S.O.F.M.)
06. Secret Plans
07. Save a Prayer (Duran Duran cover)
08. The Reverend
09. Cherry Cola
10. I Like to Move in the Night
11. Wannabe in L.A.
12. Oh Girl
13. I Love You All the Time
14. Moonage Daydream (David Bowie cover)
15. Boys Bad News
16. Speaking in Tongues