A few weeks ago I saw Neutral Milk Hotel. It was a
transcendent experience that was emotionally potent. I’m not the most emotional
person, but I nearly cried towards the end of the set. The show is currently
tied for my favorite live set I’ve seen this year. The co-champion is Queens of
the Stone Age at the Keller Auditorium. While I was profoundly moved at NMH,
Queens simply kicked unprecedented amounts of ass.
My love for QOTSA is well documented, but even I was
surprised by how great the show was. Two plus hours of the best rock n’ roll on
earth. They opened with the legendary “Feel Good Hit of the Summer” which owns
the iconic “C-C-C-Cocaine!” chorus and things only got crazier from there.
Homme downed some suspicious clear liquid and announced “I’m fucked up
already!” Queens took a strange route by playing their two biggest hits first
with “No One Knows” following “Feel Good.” After a brief detour into their
self-titled debut with “Avon,” Queens decided to blow the roof off the house by
preforming a super charged version of “My God is the Sun.” Anyone that was in
the audience quickly realized what fools the Grammy producers were for cutting
off one of the best guitar songs of the 2010s prematurely.
One of the most impressive things about the set is how
natural Jon Theodore sounds working with songs in Queen’s back catalog. The
trio of songs from Lullabies to Paralyze were
given a heavy boost by Theodore’s colossal drum chops. “Burn the Witch” in
particular stomped along with an apocalypse bringing weight thanks to
Theodore’s work on the skins. Even on the minimal songs Theodore provided a
brutal foundation. …like clockwork cut
“Smooth Sailing” (which recently received an uproarious video) lurched along a
dangerous pace. Theodore wasn’t the only one bringing his all into “Smooth
Sailing” the faux-disco track’s grinding guitar dissonance that serves as a
solo was as thrilling as it was uncomfortable, likely to make the entire body
shudder.
What put Queens’ set above every other rock concert I’ve
seen is their ability to morph songs into more massive pieces on stage. Queens
were never afraid of experimenting with their studio work. Three songs in the
set nearly doubled their original length. “Make it Wit Chu” was turned into the
night’s biggest sing along with the entire crowd chanting “I wanna make it! I
wanna make it wit chu!” (Homme commented there was “nothing better than
fucking” as the song ended only to come back with “But sometimes it’s just
really good to fuck stuff up” as the band lunged into a fantastic “Sick Sick
Sick.”) …like clockwork center piece
“I Appear Missing” stretched on for over 10 minutes of powerful insanity, but
the night’s most spectacular was Rated R’s
“Better Living Through Chemistry.” The darkly swirling track is one of Queen’s best,
but they made in into something completely different. The atmospheric intro was
blown apart by Homme’s vicious guitar work and the band grew in intensity until
it seemed like the entire building was quivering. They stopped for a moment,
letting it all sink in, before doubling down on their attack and pushed the
song to its overwhelming ending. Those nine minutes were some of the finest
moments in rock I’ve ever had the honor of hearing.
Queens “closed” with “Go with the Flow” and returned shortly
for the encore. And with the encore came Nick Oliveri. The former Queens
vocalist and bassist who left the band in 2004 was in the opening band Moistboyz
and Homme dedicated “Better Living Through Chemistry” to him, but no one
thought Oliveri would be brought out to perform his best Queens song “You Think
I Ain’t Worth a Dollar, but I Feel like a Millionaire.” It was as if the entire
night had been leading up to this moment. Queens grew in strength with every
song and with “Millionaire” they burst into rock n’ roll ecstasy. Queens closed
the set with the ever excellent “A Song for the Dead,” but Oliveri’s first
performance with Queens in a decade was a legendary moment that left me
awe-struck and thrilled to be a part of the experience.
Make no mistake guys, Queens of the Stone Age are the best
rock band in the world.
This review nailed it. Absolute best concert I've seen in a good, long time. They weren't any better than the album release party for Songs for the Deaf (a year before it was released, at the Troubador, with Grohl drumming...), but it was good. I fully agree with the comments about their current drummer. He didn't do it better than Grohl, but he was way more than adequate. Thanks for this super-accurate review.
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