The day after the Marty Friedman gig, I went to see Tokyo band, Electric Eel Shock. I know it's been more than a month since then, but I've been pretty busy, and have only just found some time to do this.
This time they played a venue called The Doghouse, also in Nottingham, but not in the city centre like Rock City is. I thought that this was a shame, as the venue seemed a little out of the way, and I think this may have possibly affected how many people showed up on the night. It's a two hundred capacity venue, but unfortunately there were only twenty three people in the audience for this gig, and that included the three-piece support band.
Despite this lower than expected turnout, the band still put on a fantastically loud show, geeing up the audience enough for them to make the noise of a lot more people. It really felt like there was easily more than double the number watching.
Electric Eel Shock are Aki Morimoto on guitar and vocals, Kazuto Maekawa on the bass, and Tomoharu "Gian" Ito on the drums. As usual, the drummer spent most of the gig almost naked, but for one very long sock covering his bits! For anyone who have never heard them, they're heavily influenced by the great classic rock bands of the seventies; Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Deep Purple et al. As such, they rock yer socks off!
EES are a great band to photograph, with both Aki and Kazuto throwing dramatic guitar poses, and Gian's energetic drumming, with his four drumsticks.
One song that's easy to recall them playing is "Bastard !", from the album Beat Me (2005). This one always gets the crowd going, with it's highly catchy hook of a repeated "Bastaaaaard! Bastaaaaard!". You can't help but chant along, and at this gig one member of the support band crashed the stage to sing along.
They also played old favourites "Rock & Roll Can Rescue The World" and "Suicide Rock 'N' Roll" from their 2004 album Go Europe ! (also available on the 2005 album Go USA!).
Other songs played were "Out Of Control", and "Metal Man", taken from the crowd-funded album Sugoi Indeed (2009).
They also performed cover versions of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" and Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher", which both feature on their latest album EES Covers.
Electric Eel Shock do covers like bands should do, in my opinion. Instead of doing a straight copy, and doing nothing new with the material, they always put their own spin on things, often changing things up and giving the songs a whole new feel. They've always done this, from their faster version of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man", and their rocking version of Minnie Ripperton's "Lovin' You" (from the 2007 album Transworld Ultra Rock), to their 2008 cover of AC/DC's "Back In Black" and now the recent covers album.
The only other song I remember them playing was "My Favourite No.9"; I'm not sure whether it was on an album or not, but the video is definitely worth checking out!
After the performance I bought a T-Shirt and two CDs; Sugoi Indeed and EES Covers.
If ever you get the chance to see Electric Eel Shock play live, I strongly urge you to do so! They're one of the most fun rock bands and you'll have a really great time!
More photos below.
All photos by AZNPopCulture.com
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