At one point during his band's sold-out show at the Beaumont last night, Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme said, "We may be drunk, but we still care. I may be really high, but I still care." He also claimed that he hadn't played in Kansas City for the past 19 years; but he was glad to be back. Everyone else packed into the Westport venue was, too, because Homme and his band fucking killed it.
I listened to QOTSA's 1998 self-titled debut album ad nauseam in anticipation of this show -- an album originally performed by none of the dudes onstage but Homme himself. In a recent interview on The Guardian, Homme said this: "The first Queens record is iconic for us. Each album is a different marker on our path, but this is the one that started it all. It put the trance into the music."
And so it was last night: an intoxicating stew of desert stoner rock, hard, dirty and desolate. A sea of faces extended all the way to the back of the venue, transfixed on Homme, who was surrounded by drop-down LED lights. Songs melted into each other, and the vocals were hard to decipher. I stood up high on the west end of the room, and everyone around me was down with it. (No bitchin', just rockin'.) Down below, the crowd really got off on "Mexicola": In a world that's full of shit and gasoline, baby, I'll totally take it.
Homme did look rather worn-out, but he owned the stage and played effortlessly. Backed up by Troy Van Leeuwen on guitar, Michael Shuman on a monster bass, Dean Fertita on keyboards and guitar, and Joey Castillo on drums, the aural onslaught lasted about 90 minutes. (I think at one point, Homme accidently kicked over the keyboard stand, but I couldn't see that part of the stage so well.)
For the encore, Homme took requests. He seemed genuinely grateful when someone threw out "Misfit Love." "That's one of our favorite songs," he said. "This is the first city on tour to request that." QOTSA gave us the crowd what they wanted at the end, for sure. The audience sang along to "Make it Wit Chu" ("A song for the ladies," he called it) and went ape-shit on "Little Sister."
To hear the final song of the night, "No One Knows," performed live was the zenith of my music-going experiences. Beer and cups flew, bodies were gyrating. It was, well, soul-cleansing.
Critic's Bias: I had goosebumps the entire show.
Critic's Notebook: Hard to read as a result of drink spillage and writing above my head.
Overheard in the Crowd: "He [Homme] needs to lay off the drugs."
Set List:
Regular John
Avon
If Only
Walkin' On Sidewalks
You Would Know
How to Handle a Rope (A Lesson in the Lariat)
Mexicola
Hispanic Impressions
The Bronze
Give the Mule What He Wants
I Was a Teenage Hand Model
You Can't Quit Me Baby
Encore:
Turnin' on the Screw
Misfit Love
Little Sister
Make it wit Chu
A Song for the Deaf
No One Knows
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he was talking about the kyuss hurricane show where he & alfredo beat the shite out of a guy for breaking into their RV, I think he broke a skylight on top or something, then was getting into the storage area pulling out a guitar. he left in an ambulance, josh & alfredo left in cuffs... good times!
I saw Kyuss open for White Zombie and Danzig at Memorial Hall twenty years ago on a Sunday
night. I paid to see Kyuss with Monster Magnet and Sugar Ray at the second location of the
Lone Star on SW Boulev.ard in October 1994. Kyuss broke up a week before the show and
I saw the Deftones instead. Queens opened for Ween at Liberty Hall and I saw that. Queens
also played the Bottleneck in like 2002 or 2003. I saw that. The show the other night was awesome.
I wished I could've heard better learning through chemistry but I can't complain. Nick Spacek
is finally in a journalistic endeavor that fits his ego. We in local bands have suffered from his
unneeded ego for sometime. You're not in Rolling Stone save the ego for your bedroom
mirror.
PHEW! Glad they killed it. I was getting a little worried that they wouldn't kill it. If they didn't kill it, you'd have to find another adjective to describe what they did on stage.
Nope. I'm actually a 32-year-old college grad and Pitch editor who has written enough concert reviews to know that no one wants to read a snobbish, convoluted explanation about a rock show that simply kicked ass.
What a great show. These guys are really the last remnant of good solid rock music. Too bad they get pigeon-holed so much. But the judgement on this night was YEA!
You're right, he wasn't about to play HT. He was teasing the crowd. He even said that he didn't have the correct guitar for the song and that they might play it later. Misfit Love was great though.
My bad, I think he was talking about Kyuss 1994 at the Lonestar. If not, then he forgot about that show as they also played Memorial Hall in 1992 with White Zombie.
And yea, QOTSA also played Lawrence in 2000 for Rated R.
Btw, Kyuss Lives (Brant Bjork, Nick Oliveri, John Garcia + new guitarist in place of Homme) will be hitting the US later this year.
Hopefully Lawrence or KC can hook up a show!
http://www.kyusslives.com/
And the show Josh was referring to 19 years ago was actually Kyuss 16 years ago at the Hurricane just down the street.
Such an amazing show. You Can't Quit Me Baby was one of the best live renditions of a song I've ever seen. My face is still in a puddle on the floor of the Beaumont. Song for the Deaf and Make it wit chu were much appreciated as well.
That's what I was thinking. Maybe they were being technical since that's "Bonner Springs". I remember them coming through Lawrence before that too.
The Bronze absolutely slayed live! Soul-crushingly heavy! I did not remember that b-side being that friggan awesome! (It was from the Beaver/QOTSA Man's Ruin split EP)
I was hoping for some other old-school early raries like Born to Hula or Spiders & Vinegrooms but this show was well worth it for the main set alone.
Hard to believe Josh was gonna play Hanging Tree and people requested Misfit Love over that. But hey, they had to get those types of songs in at the end for the newbs!
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