NOLA sludge veterans EYEHATEGOD played an incredible show at the intimate Europa on June 12th. With no crowd barriers and practically unnoticeable security, this was a free-for-all for any fan that ever wanted to get up close and personal with the who’s who band of the NOLA underground.
Starting off and closing with an EHG wall of squelching feedback, Jimmy Bower, Brian Patton, and Gary Mader nearly blew out everyone’s eardrums before the set even got underway and left our ears ringing in the end. Mike Williams was variably hanging the microphone stand from the rafters and hanging from the stand as well and Joey LaCaze – when he wasn’t joking around with the crowd – was furiously beating on the drums. Jimmy, when not blasting our ears with squelching feedback, could have played the show acapella style as he was mouthing every note and riff coming from his 4-string.
Songs played included “Blank” “Sister Fucker” “White Nigger” “Dixie Whiskey” and a closer of “Peace Thru War (Thru Peace and War).” I’ll be straight with you, they didn’t have a written setlist and I was too damn excited – and busy headbanging – to remember everything played. My only complaint was that Mike’s vocals needed to be a bit higher in the mix as he was drowned out by the guitars at times.
There are shows when you can tell that a band is having as much fun playing as the crowd is being there. This was one of those shows. Mike couldn’t thank us enough for coming out and supporting the band and had Europa not forced them to finish up, they easily could have played much longer. The world needs a fresh dose of EYEHATEGOD and I can only ask that they get a new album out after this run of dates and get back on tour.