The Tivoli is packed to the rafters this Anzac Day eve, as every punter in the place is buzzing with anticipation for tonight’s gig.

The Butcher Birds open the show and aim to get the crowd moving. Once winners of the Brisbane leg of the Garage2V competition, the three Brisbane girls and sole Brisbane guy perform a solid set. Powerful, dark and sultry tracks define this band’s sound, and they don’t disappoint, playing each song beautifully. The quartet have long been impressing crowds in Brisbane and beyond, and judging from tonight’s performance, they will continue to do so as they aren’t afraid to get down and dirty and experiment with their grunge and indie sounds.

Next up are The Protectors and straight away the foursome from New South Wales are incredibly entertaining as they energetically bounce around the stage. At the opposite end of the rock scale to The Butcher Birds, they seem to be bringing back the 80’s hair metal, and remind me of something like a cross between The Darkness and The Rapture. Epic pauses and seriously catchy tunes have the crowd dancing along in no time. With all four lads contributing to the vocals duties, they belt out tracks from their debut EP Tarantula. I’m a Sister is the standout song of the set, and the boys have done a fantastic job getting the crowd warmed up for the headliners.

Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Outta My Head confuses everyone for just a second, before Jesse – œThe Devil’ Hughes and the Eagles Of Death Metal leap onto the stage and launch into I Only Want You in front of a roaring Brisbane audience. The trademark tight jeans and handlebar mo’s set the scene for this “bible study with the Devil” as Hughes leads his current touring lineup of Dave Catching and Bryan O’Connor on guitar and bass and Joey Castillo on the drums through their always offending but highly addictive. Josh Homme, the other enigmatic main member of EoDM wasn’t available for the drumming duties of this tour as he had previous recording commitments.

However, this didn’t stop them from putting on an awesome show. Belting out each track with enthusiasm, their hits Cherry Cola, Speaking In Tongues and crowd favourite I Want You So Hard (Boy’s Bad News) show us that EoDM clearly enjoy the rockstar life and play up to it fiercely. They write some of the rudest rock’n’roll around and the new album shows no signs that EoDM have started to censor their lyrics as they play new tracks from Heart On, including first single, Wannabe In LA. The shuddering riffs, and the fast paced percussions back the ever-present sleazy innuendos in every song, and EoDM don’t slow down once during the entire set.

After a performance that covers everything from living the LA lifestyle to Whorehoppin’ and a nice little cover of Stealers Wheel’s Stuck In The Middle, the crowd is left feeling a little violated but somehow extremely satisfied that they have just witnessed one of the most entertaining rock’n’roll gigs of the year.