Eagles Of Death Metal
On tour
Heavy rock traditionally walks a perilous line between seriousness and high camp; Eagles Of Death Metal would seem to want to leave you in no doubt as to which side they're on. Initially a kind of in joke side project put together by Josh Homme from Queens Of The Stone Age and his friend Jesse "The Devil" Hughes, the Eagles may insist - at every opportunity - on their "sexiness", but they have since proved that there's nothing quite so serious as being funny. While the Death By Sexy album shows an ironist's sharp eye for detail, it still conveys a fan's love for rock'n'roll. Here the conventions and postures of the genre are sent up, while at the same time still rocking hard, and it's a big-hearted - and, of course, mildly arousing - experience all round.
· Manchester University, Sat 3; Leeds Metropolitan University SU, Sun 4; ABC, Glasgow, Mon 5; Rock City, Nottingham, Tue 6; Newcastle University SU, Wed 7; Junction, Cambridge, Fri 9
Arcade Fire
On tour
There has to be more than just one Arcade Fire. How else to explain the wildly different reactions to the band's recent low-key London gigs? The show which enduced raptures in one critic prompted abject disappointment in another. Inconsistency is evidently this Canadian band's special magic: it's one thing to feel the expansive, oddball thinking that goes into their music; quite another to prepare for what kind of head of steam the band might be able to create with the material on a given night. Win Butler's group seem to strive for the extraordinary every night, and those on which they miss are just as important as the ones when they succeed.
· Olympia Theatre, Dublin, Mon 5 & Tue 6; Apollo, Manchester, Thu 8 & Fri 9
