Eel Men @ The Social, London (Live Review)
- Published in Live
Eel Men
The Social
Words & Pics by Captain Stavros
Sweat, Smog and Sharp Hooks: Eel Men Electrify The Social
It’s the first properly sleeveless evening of the year — aided, in part, by the thick fug of central London hanging over Little Portland Street like a nicotine-stained duvet. Outside The Social, clusters of smokers and lager-sweating punters blur together in the heat, tongues wagging as loudly as the traffic. Before long, drinks are downed, cigarettes stubbed, and the crowd is funneled downstairs into the venue’s low-ceilinged concrete bunker to witness Eel Men launch their latest release.
We snag a booth right at the lip of the stage — where sticky wood meets chipped concrete — and clock a crescent-shaped chunk missing from the corner of the table. Less wear-and-tear, more bite mark. You wonder what kind of night caused that. Perched awkwardly sideways and narrowly avoiding the swinging headstock of Snub’s bassist every few minutes, it already feels less like a gig and more like surviving inside one.
On what was then the hottest day of the year, Eel Men emerge dressed like office workers caught in the wrong dimension: shirts, ties, jumpers, jackets — everyone wilting except the drummer, the only member with the common sense to wear a T-shirt. The music, though, is gloriously unbothered by climate or comfort. Gritty, stripped-back and claustrophobically textured, the band tear into ‘Bad Eggs’ from 2025 EP, Stop It! Do Something, with enough twitchy energy to knock the room sideways.
Then comes ‘Archetype’ — track three and already the point where the oxygen fully disappears. Ghostly psychedelic riffs slink down the fretboard like a stray pressed against a darkened alley wall while the crowd relentlessly surges forward. Bodies compress. Pints spill. Suddenly the venue’s single entrance/exit feels like deeply irresponsible architecture. Nobody cares. If the place catches fire from the smouldering tunes, so be it, at least the soundtrack will be phenomenal.
What’s remarkable is just how clean everything sounds despite the room feeling vacuum-sealed. Every bassline lands with a satisfying thud, every jagged guitar line cuts through the sweat haze. On ‘Motives’, frontman Jimmy Elliot delivers the line “would you kiss your mother with that mouth?” before smooching the hot mic with even hotter results.
Special guest Steph Anderson — multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire whose CV already reads like a mini-festival lineup (Yassassin, Findlay and countless others) — joins the band for ‘Glass Hammers’, adding shimmering synth textures via a tiny Korg perched stage-right. From there on, the set barely pauses for breath. Songs collapse seamlessly into one another with almost no between-track chatter; just relentless momentum and heads whipping from stage-left to stage-right trying not to miss a second.
New track ‘Autobahn Eyes’ lands like it’s already a fan favourite, signalling the final act of the set as the room descends into full-body heatstroke delirium. By now jackets and ties have been discarded onto the stage floor, the band visibly pushing themselves to the limit while never losing control of the set’s razor-wire precision. Steph Anderson, meanwhile, remains somehow immaculate throughout — silver trousers gleaming under the lights while delivering a standout performance on ‘Sore Eyes’, where even the tambourine parts demand your full attention. Not many people can make a tambourine feel like a headline instrument. She manages it effortlessly.
‘Pink Ones’ arrives with a bassline filthy enough to rattle fillings loose, while ‘Beschemel’ proves the night’s most unhinged moment: frantic, fast and impossible not to move to. An absolute slammer.
The set closes with a razor-tight double encore and the kind of applause that feels less polite than necessary. Looking around the room afterwards, there are familiar faces everywhere — Voices Radio’s Babe El Oued, Billy and Jackson formerly of Loose Tongues now dipping in and out of various projects, plus other musicians and scene regulars all exchanging the same knowing nods. The sort of crowd that tells you this band’s reputation has already spread long before the algorithms catch up.
Those in the know clearly already know.
Now you do too.
Eel Men are touring across Europe through the end of June following their album release. Miss them at your own peril.
