EODM TURN THE 9:30 CLUB INTO A SWEATY, SEXY ROCK ’N’ ROLL REVIVAL

Twenty years after Death by Sexy, Jesse Hughes and company brought the swagger, sleaze and gloriously unserious spirit of rock ’n’ roll back to Washington, D.C.

Eagles of Death Metal - Death by Sexy 20th Anniversary Tour9:30 Club - Washington, D.C.August 13, 2026

Photos & Review: Adam Ishaeik / The Hot Spots Network

There are rock shows, and then there are the nights when a band seems determined to remind everyone in the room exactly why rock ’n’ roll was supposed to be dangerous, ridiculous and fun in the first place.

Eagles of Death Metal came to Washington’s 9:30 Club on August 13 celebrating the 20th anniversary of Death by Sexy, the wonderfully filthy 2006 record that helped cement the band’s peculiar place in rock: part garage band, part glam spectacle, part desert-rock boogie machine. The anniversary tour is built around playing the album in full alongside fan favorites and a few surprises.

But “anniversary tour” makes the whole thing sound far more respectable than it actually was.

This was a party.

And Jesse Hughes was its ringleader.

From the moment Hughes appeared beneath the 9:30 Club lights - shades on, guitar strapped across his chest and that unmistakable combination of preacher, provocateur and rock ’n’ roll lifer in full effect - the room belonged to him.

Hughes doesn't so much perform at an audience as recruit it.

Within minutes, the invisible line between stage and floor had essentially disappeared. Hughes worked the front rows relentlessly, pointing into the crowd, leaning toward fans and turning moments between songs into part sermon, part comedy routine and part celebration of the fact that everybody had managed to find themselves in the same sweaty room on a Thursday night.

And at the 9:30 Club, that approach works particularly well.

The legendary D.C. room is intimate enough that a performer can look someone in the eye from the stage, yet big enough for a loud rock band to hit with serious force. Eagles of Death Metal exploited both qualities.

Twenty Years Later, Death by Sexy Still Has Teeth

Released in 2006, Death by Sexy arrived at a moment when rock was becoming increasingly polished. Eagles of Death Metal went the other direction.

The record was lean, dirty, funny and almost defiantly uncomplicated.

Twenty years later, those songs don't feel like museum pieces.

They feel built for a club.

The guitars came across thick and nasty, the bass pushed everything forward, and the drums gave the material considerably more muscle than the recordings sometimes suggest. Songs designed around riffs and attitude suddenly became physical things inside the 9:30 Club.

That's the secret of Eagles of Death Metal.

On paper, much of this music looks simple.

Onstage, simplicity becomes a weapon.

A riff locks in. The drums hit. Hughes throws out a vocal. The groove settles into place.

And suddenly several hundred people are moving together.

There is very little wasted motion in this band.

The Band Behind the Swagger

It would be easy for an Eagles of Death Metal show to become entirely about Hughes' personality. He's simply too charismatic to ignore.

But this incarnation of the band gave him a formidable engine.

The rhythm section hit with enormous weight, particularly when the songs settled into the dirty, repetitive grooves at the heart of Death by Sexy. The bass frequently became the bridge between the guitars and drums, adding a heavier bottom end without sacrificing the band's loose garage-rock feel.

The backing vocals were another important ingredient. They didn't merely fill out choruses; they gave the show some of its glam-rock character, providing a counterpoint to Hughes' wiry vocal delivery.

And then there were the drums.

Behind the kit, the performance was ferocious.

Hair flying, sticks raised overhead and cymbals crashing beneath red and amber light, the drumming provided some of the night's most visually explosive moments. The songs may swagger, but the drums made them hit.

That contrast - loose on top, brutally tight underneath - is a major reason Eagles of Death Metal still works so well live.

Jesse Hughes Is Still Jesse Hughes

Hughes remains one of rock's genuine characters.

Nothing about him feels particularly calculated.

He's eccentric. He's funny. He's theatrical. He's occasionally absurd. And he possesses the increasingly rare ability to make a packed venue feel like a party happening in somebody's basement.

That mattered more than nostalgia Thursday night.

A lesser anniversary tour can feel like a band carefully recreating an artifact from its past.

This didn't.

There was no sense that Eagles of Death Metal were asking the audience to admire what they had accomplished twenty years ago.

They were asking everyone to participate in it right now.

And the crowd happily obliged.

Fans crowded against the stage, phones appeared overhead, fists went into the air and Hughes repeatedly returned the attention. Some of the night's best moments weren't choreographed at all - they came from those exchanges between performer and audience when Hughes caught someone's eye and suddenly made one person in a packed club part of the show.

That kind of connection can't be programmed into a lighting console.

Sex, Sweat and Rock ’n’ Roll

The visual atmosphere suited the music perfectly.

Deep reds, saturated oranges and hard amber beams cut through the darkness, occasionally turning the stage into something resembling a furnace. Against the black interior of the 9:30 Club, the musicians seemed to emerge and disappear from the light as the show moved.

There wasn't a massive video wall or an elaborate arena production.

There didn't need to be.

Amplifiers. Guitars. Drums. Lights. People.

That's the production.

And for Eagles of Death Metal, anything more might actually get in the way.

What emerged was something increasingly difficult to manufacture: a genuinely great club-rock atmosphere.

The evening was billed as the Death by Sexy 20th Anniversary Tour, with Mountain Head supporting.  But by the time Eagles of Death Metal were fully underway, the anniversary itself almost became secondary.

The songs may be twenty years older.

The attitude isn't.

Two decades after Death by Sexy, Eagles of Death Metal remain gloriously committed to the idea that rock ’n’ roll doesn't have to be profound to matter.

Sometimes it just needs a killer riff, a loud amplifier, a crowded room and somebody crazy enough to lead the party.

On August 13 at the 9:30 Club, Jesse Hughes was still that guy.

Rating: ★★★★½ / 5

SETLIST

1. I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News)

2. I Gotta Feelin (Just Nineteen)

3. Cherry Cola

4. I Like to Move in the Night

5. Solid Gold

6. Don't Speak (I Came to Make a Bang!)

7. Keep Your Head Up

8. The Ballad of Queen Bee and Baby Duck

9. Poor Doggie

10. Chase the Devil

11. Eagles Goth

12. Shasta Beast

13. Bag O' Miracles