LIVE REVIEW: EAGLES OF DEATH METAL – DEATH BY SEXY 20TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR @ CENTER STAGE THEATER, ATLANTA, GA – AUGUST 11, 2026

The room at Center Stage Theater has that good kind of intimacy, a genrel admission floor and a low stage that puts the band close enough that you can watch a guitarist’s boot heel keeping time. It was packed but not suffocating on a warm August night, the kind of Atlanta humidity that makes everybody’s shirt stick to their back by the time the openers even plug in.

Headsend got that job done fast. Three guys from Australia, first time touring the States, and you could tell they knew what was riding on it. The sound was pure mid 90s, all fuzzed low end and vocal cords stretched thin, like somebody spliced a Nirvana record with a Silverchair one and let it warp in the Queensland heat. The singer, Rasmus King had that half snarl, half yelp thing going, and the rhythm section consisting of Kyuss King (Bass) and Bon Soric (Drums) kept everything tight even when the songs threatened to fall apart at the edges, which is exactly the kind of controlled chaos that genre needs. They played like they had something to prove, because they did, and the crowd rewarded them with real attention instead of the usual opener murmur. I’d go out of my way to catch them again, and I don’t say that about every support act that flies fifteen hours to open a show.

Then Eagles of Death Metal hit the stage and the whole building seemed to loosen up. Jesse Hughes has always carried himself less like a traditional frontman and more like the host of a party that just happens to involve loud guitars, and the rest of the band matched that energy without ever letting things get sloppy. Guitarist Scott Shiflett brought a seasoned, effortless presence to the stage, playing with the kind of confidence that never needed to demand attention to earn it. Bassist Dustin Douglas gave the songs their weight and swagger, while drummer Leah Bluestein kept everything driving forward with a sharp, hard-hitting performance behind the kit. Hughes’ wife joined in on backing vocals throughout the night, adding another layer to the harmonies and fitting naturally into the band’s loose, anything-goes atmosphere. Shiflett occasionally traded a grin with Hughes, and together the group kept everything tight underneath all of that unpredictable Eagles of Death Metal energy.

That looseness carried right into the way Hughes worked the room. The Georgia connection turned out to be more than incidental, with Hughes mentioning his family roots in the state and at one point pointing out his cousin Mark at the side of the stage. He even gave a shoutout to a lowrider bike Mark had built for him, one of those random, personal moments that made the show feel less like a polished rock production and more like a gathering of friends who happened to have a theater full of people watching. Hughes leaned into that same feeling with a running call and response, asking, “This isn’t Hollywood, are you having a good time?” then, “This isn’t Santa Fe, Mexico, are you having a good time?” before finally landing on, “This is ATL, GA, are we having a good time?” The room answered him loudly every time, and by the time he got to Atlanta, it felt less like a rehearsed bit and more like Hughes simply enjoying the chance to pull everyone into the party.

The high point came when he split the room in half for “I Only Want You,” coaching one side of the theater to hold down the melody while the other side answered it back, conducting the whole thing with his guitar neck like a baton. During the song Wanna Be in LA, he swapped it out on the spot, singing about wanting to be right there in GA instead, and the crowd ate it up, the kind of small lyrical wink that costs nothing and buys a band a whole room’s goodwill. It’s a simple trick, changing one word, but it told you this version of the band is still paying attention to where they are instead of running the show on autopilot.

Nothing about the set felt overly polished, and that’s the appeal. EODM has never been a band built for precision, they’re built for the party that breaks out when the amps get loud enough and the singer stops taking himself seriously. Twenty years since Death By Sexy first came out, that spirit is intact.

If you get the chance while this tour keeps rolling, through Philadelphia, then Brooklyn, up into Boston, over the border to Toronto, go. Get there early enough to catch Headsend too, because that band is going to be a very different proposition the next time they roll through, likely playing rooms twice this size.

Eagles of Death Metal Photo Gallery

Headsend Photo Gallery

Setlist

• I Want You So Hard (Boy’s Bad News)
• I Got a Feelin (Just Nineteen)
• Cherry Cola
• I Like to Move in the Night
• Solid Gold
• Don’t Speak (I Came to Make a Bang!)
• Keep Your Head Up
• The Ballad of Queen Bee and Baby Duck
• Poor Doggie
• Chase the Devil
• Eagles Goth
• Shasta Beast
• Bag O’ Miracles
• I Only Want You
• Anything ‘Cept the Truth
• Complexity/Wannabe in LA/Secret Plans
• Heroes (cover)
• Speaking in Tongues

Watch

Tour Poster

Follow

Upcoming Shows

More live coverage from No Flash Needed

Live photography by Chris Collett for No Flash Needed. © 2026 No Flash Needed. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without written permission.