Atlanta’s historic Center Stage Theater offered a fitting home for Eagles of Death Metal on Tuesday night, where nearly six decades of venue history collided with the band’s unapologetic brand of hard-driving rock and roll. Since opening in 1966 as a state-of-the-art performing arts venue, Center Stage has evolved into one of Atlanta’s most enduring concert halls, welcoming everyone from legendary touring acts to rising artists while preserving the intimate character that has made it a favorite among musicians and fans alike. Its steeply raked seating, exceptional acoustics, and compact auditorium eliminate any sense of distance between performer and audience, creating an atmosphere where every guitar riff, snare crack, and crowd singalong carries unmistakable impact.
Headsend may be one of Australia’s newest rock bands, but the Byron Bay trio has already accumulated the kind of live resume that most emerging acts can only dream about, including opening for legacy acts such as AC/DC and Tool. Taking the Atlanta stage just after 7:30 p.m., Rasmus King and Kyuss King — brothers who are also professional surfers — brought the same physicality and instinctive timing to their 30-minute performance that has made them formidable in the water, with drummer Bon Soric completing a lineup capable of turning an intimate venue into a full-blown sonic assault. Coming off the release of their debut Angel Glands EP in March, the band has now embarked on its first U.S. tour with a sound that feels equal parts Silverchair, Powderfinger, and Nirvana.
The band’s appeal is rooted in an unfiltered approach to rock that feels increasingly rare, with songs built to hit hardest when played at full volume in front of a crowd. “Stove” and “Chugg” remained bruising highlights, while “Do Do” demonstrated that Headsend can balance its grunge-heavy attack with hooks that linger after the amplifiers go quiet. The five-track Angel Glands was recorded live in-studio by producer Nick DiDia, whose credits include Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, and Stone Temple Pilots, a decision that clearly preserved the band’s live sound. Headsend arrived in the United States not as a band looking to prove itself, but as three musicians already accustomed to performing on some of Australia’s biggest stages and eager to discover how far that momentum can carry them.
Headsend
Rasmus King – Lead vocals, guitar
Kyuss King – Bass
Bon Soric – Drums
More than two decades after Jesse Hughes and Josh Homme first unleashed their irreverent desert-rock side project, Eagles of Death Metal continue to demonstrate that the band’s deliberately misleading name has little bearing on the swaggering, blues-soaked rock ‘n’ roll that has made them a formidable live act. Now out on the road celebrating the 20th anniversary of Death by Sexy…, the band launched its latest North American run on August 3 at a sold-out Belly Up in Solana Beach, California, before moving through the Southwest and Texas on its way to Atlanta.
Hughes remains the unmistakable centerpiece, backed on the current tour by his wife, Phoenix, on supporting vocals, drummer Leah Bluestein, from nearby Milton, Georgia, guitarist Scott Shiflett, and bassist Dustin Douglas. Starting at 8:30 p.m., the lineup brought a seasoned, muscular foundation to songs such as “I Want You So Hard (Boy’s Bad News),” “Cherry Cola,” and “Don’t Speak (I Came to Make a Bang!),” while Hughes supplied the larger-than-life personality and audience interaction that have long been central to the Eagles of Death Metal experience. The band’s current tour presents Death by Sexy… in its entirety and in sequence alongside other favorites, giving longtime fans an opportunity to hear one of the group’s defining records revisited in a live setting two decades after its original release.
The occasion also carries considerably more weight than a conventional anniversary tour because of the band’s remarkable history. Eagles of Death Metal emerged with a sound that deliberately blurred garage rock, blues, boogie, and desert-rock sensibilities rather than conforming to the metal suggested by their name. Death by Sexy…, released in 2006, became an important chapter in that evolution, but the group’s history also includes the devastating 2015 terrorist attack at Paris’ Bataclan, an experience that forever altered its story and its relationship with audiences. As Hughes shared late in the set, the band’s return to the stage has repeatedly emphasized connection and celebration rather than allowing tragedy to define its identity. That resilience remains an important undercurrent when Hughes walks onto a stage today, but the music itself remains the focus: loud, loose, mischievous, and designed to make a room move.
That formula remains particularly effective because Eagles of Death Metal have never depended on elaborate production to make their shows memorable. The appeal is in the chemistry between Hughes and his musicians, the infectious simplicity of the grooves, and a catalog packed with songs that seem almost engineered for a crowded room. With the 2026 tour already underway and the band moving quickly through a string of intimate venues before continuing across the country, the Atlanta stop at Center Stage arrived at an ideal point in the run: the machinery of the tour was already humming, but the band was still early enough into the trek for the performance to carry raw musical momentum. Two decades after Death by Sexy… first hit shelves, Eagles of Death Metal are still proving that sometimes the most effective recipe for an amazing rock show is simply a great riff, a locked-in rhythm section, and a frontman willing to push the room over the edge.
Eagles of Death Metal’s 20-year celebration of Death by Sexy… continues for another three weeks before wrapping up their U.S. leg at The Bellwether in Los Angeles, California, on Thursday, September 3.
Eagles of Death Metal
Jesse Hughes – Lead vocals, guitar
Leah Bluestein – Drums, backing vocals
Scott Shiflett – Guitar, backing vocals
Dustin Douglas – Bass, backing vocals
Phoenix (Plischke) Hughes – Backing vocals
Setlist:
1.) I Want You So Hard (Boy’s Bad News)
2.) I Got a 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
14.) I Only Want You
15.) Anything ‘Cept the Truth
16.) Complexity/Wannabe in LA/Secret Plans
17.) Heroes (David Bowie cover)
18.) Speaking in Tongues
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Elliott is a music photographer covering shows in Atlanta, Georgia, and the surrounding area. The highlight of his photography career was back in the early ’90s, when he sold Neil Diamond the rights to his negatives from a show and then purchased a set of tires for his 1979 280ZX during college with the money.