Eagulls w/ Cheatahs, 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis (09 June 2014) concert review

North American Tour Dates

Nope, not those guys, this was the other band…

No Glenn Freys, No Don Henleys… though it could have been partially described as the end of the innocence by some musical desperadoes.

Despite my clarifying to anyone asking, I still remained at a bit of a loss of words describing Leeds, England’s Eagulls (pronounced the same but NOT ‘The Eagles’) who played a breakneck 45 min. set  at the 7^th Street Entry in Minneapolis last week.  The buzzing post-punk/garage rock band is in the midst of a brief U.S. Tour, in support of their self-titled debut (on Partisan Records) that has everyone currently talking.

Social media watchers were somewhat apprehensive about the Minneapolis show, as reports of singer George Mitchell storming off mid-set due to sound issues at their previous gig in Denver were circulating, and the band having to recruit a random fan and bassist Tom Kelly to vocally finish that show, but all fears were waylaid by the band’s full and driving 12-song set.

London’s Cheatahs opened the evening with a brief set, in support of their own self-titled full-length (on Wichita Recordings), with their own shoegazing guitar sound on tracks like ‘Cut the Grass’, ‘The Swan’ (which has changed since its debut on their earlier EP) and ‘Northern Exposure’.

Singer/guitarist Nathan Hewitt was less animated than when we saw them last fall with Waaves and FIDLAR, but the songs were no less fuzzy and effective.  The band seems to wear its late 80s influences (My Bloody Valentine, Swervedriver) on its sleeve, but updates and individualizes them to form a sonic signature as their own.

Eagulls began their unrelenting sonic assault with ‘Tough Luck’ (which could have been mildly interpreted as a dig on the Denver audience), with percussion from drummer Henry Ruddel in high gear, almost from the set opening.  Singer Mitchell shed his jacket after a couple songs, to stand and shout in place, seemingly looking non-plussed in a simple white t-shirt, in a style similar to Joy Division’s Ian Curtis and Killing Joke’s Jaz Coleman (they’ve even covered Killing Joke’s ‘Requiem’ as a b-side).  There was an immediate urgency and tense angst to their songs like ‘Yellow Eyes’ and ‘Nerve Endings’ that found  the transfixed Mitchell barking into the mic in an almost antagonistic way towards the crowd.

Crowd reception from the near-full venue and mostly younger onlookers ranged from somewhat stunned watchers, to a few aggression-releasing active ones on the floor.  Guitarist Mark Goldsworthy’s licks were sometimes jangly and Johnny Marr-like, sometimes moody and atmospheric, but always rose to then crash without abandon or quarter.  Mitchell didn’t say much or acknowledge the audience, save the comment of “I need a new throat” after 25 min. in of howling, high-tempo songs.  Lyrics on songs like ‘Hollow Visions’ and ‘Soulless Youth’ as well as the band’s stage presence, are passively confrontational, inviting controversy without much care of any repercussions, in true old-school, post-punk form.

“This is our last song” Mitchell said amongst the feedback, without any thank you or good night and launched into their best-known, ‘Possessed’; he, death-gripping the mic with eyes squinted shut as the band strapped on for the pounding “music-to-crash-your-car-to” beat that is the song’s backbone.  In the end, Eagulls did their job, in punk fashion- Get in, slam you figuratively into the wall a few times, then Get Out. By the time most of the audience figured out what was fully going on; the band, like the (other) Eagles song, was ‘Already Gone’.