The last time Eagulls played New York City it was a show at Brooklyn venue, Baby's All Right in the wee hours of the morning. The English band were in the city for an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman where they performed in front of Bill Murray back in January. At that time, the band were gaining a buzz thanks to articles in the British press as to how crazy their live shows were. They didn't even have an album out at that time. Then, in March, the band returned Stateside to perform at SXSW and became one of the breakout bands of this years festival and their debut has also finally arrived with massive acclaim. Now, the English band are back in town to kick off their very first North American tour and they did it at the iconic Mercury Lounge.
At around 8pm, the band from Leeds, England, walked on stage without a care in the world. It didn't phase them that they sold-out the infamous room that broke bands like The Strokes, Arcade Fire, Glasvegas, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio. None of it bothered them. Eagulls landed on stage, took to their respective places and cranked their instruments to 11 and just blasted the crowd away. The band looks older than I may have manged but the crowd was mixed in age, yet, everyone was into what they were doing. The band's sound is a distorted version of Stone Roses meets the thrashing guitars of Iceage. Singer George Mitchell posed like Suede's Brett Anderson with his mic and cocked over, holding his mic stand, while the rest of the band abused the tools making sound everyone wanted to hear, Eagulls demonstrated the chaos they have been known for. In a tiny room like Mercury Lounge, pits would break out and nearly every head in the room was bopping up and down feverishly to the music. For the 45-minutes Eagulls were on stage, they lived up to the hype and thunder everyone who around the world has reported on them.
