Live at Leeds Metropolitan University on Tuesday, 8th November 2005
For all of those about to read, if you know either of these bands then you will most certainly know what will be coming up in this review. You are about to read what was one of the most entertaining gigs I have ever been to in my entire life and likely the longest review you ever read.
The night starts off with Electric Eel Shock storming the stage to a room full of welcoming fans. HOLD UP!!! Who are Electric Eel Shock? They are a 3 piece band from Japan, their music consists of Metallica-like guitar riffs and vocals, but with an added comedy element. They are very "metal" so to speak, they love to show it and tell us all how metal is so much better than everything else.
It was kind of hard to put down what Electric Eel Shock were actually all about. Why? Because they played music that was very heavy, and they certainly looked like they were that way inclined. Especially lead singer Aki who looked distinctly like guitarist Kirk Hammett from Metallica, but younger. Yet they acted like complete nutters, for starters you couldn't help but notice drummer Gian playing with 2 sticks in each hand and his dick in a sock that went all the way down to the floor (the sock not the dick). Or bassist Kazuto who climbed up everything he possibly could before jumping off it.
Electric Eel Shock performed songs like "I am iron man" and "Bastard" which consisted of simple yet catchy pure rock riffs. "Bastard" had to be the best song they could possibly play. All Aki had to do was go " you, you, you, you, AND YES YOU... are all BASTARDS" to which he received huge cheers and managed to mould into being the only word he had to say to get the crowd going again. What band can do that? Call their fans bastards and get praised for it, superb.
The funny thing was their music was nothing at all like Bloodhound Gang's. Which was a real change from the usual "support is as similar to the main act as possible" routine you see so much. However they were an excellent choice. Why? Because they were so entertaining and interacted with the crowd at every possible moment (a key skill in my opinion). Making them the same as Bloodhound Gang entertainment-wise (well not as extreme) but we also got the musical variety which was excellent.
Toward the end of their set Electric Eel Shock decided to use the rest of their energy by kicking the crap out of themselves for our personal entertainment. Aki used the inside of his flying V to try to decapitate himself, as Drummer Gian made the sound effects with the drums. All whilst Bassist Kazuto threw himself off the highest speaker tower on the stage. Finishing off they branded their guitars in the air using their hands, and yes TEETH (ouch), before announcing "BLOODHOUND GANG NEXT YEEEEAAAAAA" which was shortly followed by one huge round of applause. They were truly spectacular to see, they just put so much energy into the set and received a great reaction from the whole audience, they are true performers.
"Everyone please give me one second to introduce the next band" announced Aki. "Oh yes you are all bastards, and here is BLOODHOUND GANG" as a massive roar came up from the crowd and Bloodhound Gang came on to the sound of "Boom", followed by Jimmy Pop. Whilst they were rapping out the lyrics of "Boom" - which go something like this "Sneakin' up like celery yeah I'm stalkin' / I squeak like Stephen Hawkings yeah but I'm walkin'" - Jimmy and DJ Q-ball were running about the stage just getting hyped up for the rest of the set, which by the way was almost 2 hours of pure insanity.
After their first song Jimmy tells Louise to turn the house lights on and asks us how we are, to which he receives a huge cheer. "Man you guys are already better than Nottingham, yea they didn't like me because I wore this" to which he removed his jumper revealing a Leeds United T-Shirt. After ranting about how football is called soccer he has a dig at University students and accuses everyone one the balcony of acting as if it is a Coldplay concert.
The next song is "Mary" - for all of you who don't know, this song's about marijuana and the words "DJ Q-Ball is high" are projected on the backdrop of the set in a speech bubble - this is closely followed by "Evil Jared trawls MySpace for sex". As they play, Jimmy goes round the crowd with an instant camera taking pictures and passing them to the audience. Bloodhound Gang played this song to perfection. Which is strange really as I expected them to be too drunk to be able to play, just entertain, how wrong was I? Come to think of it they played every song unbelievably well.
Next up is "Ain't my job (to fuck you on your birthday)" which Jimmy dedicates to some person in the audience. Here they decided to do a bit of improvisation, instead of singing the exact lyrics they did a bit of free styling which was a nice surprise as the words to that song can get a bit boring. During the end of this track Jimmy decided to take the piss out of Linkin' Park by singing the lyrics from "Crawling" whilst hitting his knee and hitting himself with a towel totally ripping the piss out of Chester Bennington.
Over to Evil Jared now to take the spot light as he rips off his t-shirt to reveal his muscular figure to which he gets a huge scream from the girls. "Oh you like that" declares Jared as he rubs the torn shirt under his arms. A sound of disgust is heard from the audience and Jared smiles and begins to put it down his trousers. Oh god we were all thinking, but his trousers fall down to reveal Union Jack boxers, a complete change around here and everyone cheers for the boxers. Jared throws the ball sweat soaked t-shirt onto someone and as a group of kids fight over it, Jimmy is quick to tell everyone to "stop fighting over a t-shirt, you're not from New Orleans". "Do you want t-shirts," says Jimmy, "bring out the launcher and try to get the people on the balcony". Then straight into "I wish I was Queer" as shirts are launched into the crowd, and the words "Jimmy is gayer than Soft Cell" appear on the backdrop.
Towards the end of the song Jimmy declares that he really actually likes girls that have anal beads up their ass, not gays. Then he changes the end of "I wish I was queer" into a Bloodhound Gang version of Franz Ferdinand's "Take me out". This time when the song ends he decides to take a dig at their guitarist Lüpüs Thünder. Jimmy calls him fat then tells the whole crowd to chant you fat bastard. So you know what... they did. Just after the crowd finishes roaring "you fat bastard chant", Bloodhound Gang pump out their most dance based tune "Um tiss" as the words "this band suck worse than the Kaiser Chiefs" appear.
It seems at this point that Bloodhound Gang's in-between song rituals are just as much a part of the show as the music itself, if not more. On this instance Jared decides that he will get everyone in the audience to spit on him. Now I'd like you to imagine peoples mouths protruding snow at a colossal rate... because that's what it looked like. Now Jared is soaking in phlegm, Jimmy decides that it will be a good idea to spit into Jared's mouth. Jared returns the favour with the same spit and then back again one last time. "Leeds is by far the best place we have been to yet, you guys rule. Seriously" says Jared before thumping out "Hold your head up high (and blow your brains out)".
As the song ended a shoe flew up on stage. "Ok who threw the shoe?" asks Jimmy. Then in true Bloodhound Gang style Jimmy says that Leeds is SO good that he will smack Jared round the face with the shoe. So he does, then he does it again. All before playing the great "Vagina song" with the words "Sugababes have bingo wings" on the back.
"What song do you want now, can you guess? You on the balcony what shall we play next since you're such big fans of ours" questions Jimmy. The audience starts chanting songs and Jimmy quickly shuts them up by telling everyone to organize their chants because they suck. "This song is called Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo" says Jimmy and they dig in to their new single. After the song Bloodhound Gang say that they seriously think we are the best audience ever, and they're not just saying that like Good Charlotte would.
Next up we have "Chasey Laine" with the words "sing along FUCKERS" in the background. It sure worked too; the audience was singing so much louder than the band you could hardly hear Jimmy at all. When it got to the "show 'em them titties" part of the song can anyone guess what happened, you have a choice between:
1) We all had tea and crumpets
2) Jimmy sat down and had a tube of smarties
3) Girls got their boobs out
For the idiots of the world it was number 3 (DURRRR). After the song Jimmy told everyone to stop and look at the girl on some guys shoulders. "Show us again. Come on". Now the whole room is looking at this one girl she lifts her top up to reveal... the 8th wonder of the world. Jimmy declares they are the nicest pair he has ever seen. As for Jared, he is so impressed with how we all reacted to them he gets a tube and a funnel and tells us all how he is going to neck some drinks in our honor. "I don't want beer I want something manlier, what have we got. OHHHH Yes" as he pulls out a bottle of Jägermeister and chugs down half of a 70cl bottle. Well done - that's strong stuff.
After playing "Ralph Wiggum" some little scumbag spits at Jimmy. He recovers well by shouting "you little dick, that the best you got, look at you, you still have a mohok in 2005". To which the whole crowd cheers for Jimmy and heckles the kid.
"Hell yea" finishes and Jimmy picks up 3 apples and begins to juggle now, but at the same time manages to eat them until they're gone, then spitting apple all over the place. It seems that the people behind the stage were on almost as much as the band cleaning something up every 5 seconds, brilliant!
Bloodhound Gang leave the stage now to a huge round of applause with the words "how is my band call 07785950792" as the room fills with the light from everyone's mobile phones. Then the chants begin. "Blood-Hound-Gang Blood-Hound-Gang Blood-Hound-Gang". For about 5 minutes they didn't actually appear but when they did reclaim the stage (to a very welcoming crowd). They were each wearing a helmet with a different bit of miniature drum kit on each one.
This was to be the equivalent of a band's guitar solo. Jimmy called it "the dumb solo". The drummer then proceeded to play the drum beat on their heads as Jimmy and DJ Q-ball rapped out "You're pretty when I'm drunk". After performing this song in a way that we never even imagined, they tell us some Michael Jackson jokes and Jared continues to tell everyone how wasted he is (I'm not surprised, he drank a lot).
After the jokes came something I don't think anyone expected. Jared tapped Jimmy on the shoulder, Jimmy turned around and... Jared chunders all over Jimmy's arm. Jimmy cleans it off, so Jared does it again on his back. Whilst laughing so hard it actually hurt I could hear the crowd "ewwwing" in disgust.
The sick got cleaned up now the room smells of sick and curry (that's what he ate apparently) so it's the perfect time for "Burn" which they refuse to play until every hand is in the air and everyone is singing along. Cue another "you fat bastard" chant, and Jimmy turning to Jared and telling him to puke on his ass. Yes that's right Jimmy WANTED Jared to chunder (love that word) in his crack. So he does, and he's "goin' flowing" for a good 30 seconds before they restart "Burn" and tell the crowd to "try again you c**ts".
So now it's the last song of the night, nearly every band member is covered in something. The stage is awash with puke, apples, water and drink, guitarist Lüpüs Thünder just broke his guitar and "Bad Touch" commences. At this point the floor is shaking from the constant jumping of the crowd. As the night ends Jared displays a British flag over himself and I nearly go deaf from the volume of the crowd's screaming, as Bloodhound Gang stumble off stage.
As you can see you won't be bored if you ever go to one of these gigs. Their set was a good 2 hours or so long with at least half of that crowd interaction. No other band communicates with the audience like Bloodhound Gang did that night. As well as playing to an extremely high standard whilst completely trashed. If you get the chance then go see them. There is not a chance in hell you will be disappointed.
