From the second the melodic ‘Singing in the Rain’ began playing through the main stage speakers in a typically eerie, Queens of the Stone Age fashion, a sense of electric anticipation disseminated amongst the crowd and I felt that this would be a performance I was unlikely to bare witness to ever again.
Cheering turned to screams as the ice-cool, forty-minutes-late Josh Homme waltzed to the front of the stage without a single fuck to give and unleashed fury with an unexpected display of ‘Do it Again’. The power of QOTSA instantly took me back to five years ago as the iconic force of Homme and Van Leeuwen’s guitars, combined with Jon Theodore’s drums, formed an amalgamation of one, massive rock sound that shook my whole body. What did surprise me in comparison to past tours, however, was the distinct lack of visuals. Only luminescent poles which protruded from the stage floor featured and just seemed to annoy the boisterous members of QOSTA, whom kicked and lashed at them as if to say: “We’re Queens of the Stone Age, we do what we want.”
The band oozed persona and class as their set-list dived into new and old songs each to be treasured more than the last. Prolific classics like ‘Little Sister’ and ‘Go with the Flow’, which sent a crowd of 50,000 into utter pandemonium, were well balanced amongst new-album hits like ‘Feet Don’t Fail Me Now’ and ‘The Way You Used To Do’ which brought a refreshing but still utterly satisfying new edge to QOTSA. The unparalleled ability of Homme’s band members showed as they effortlessly nailed song after song, barely putting a foot wrong for two hours. Together, with Homme at the helm, QOSTA seem to only get better which is a claim more than justified by their finishing rendition of ‘Song For The Dead’ in which Homme had time to light a cig and smoke it as Theodore crashed into one show-stopper of a drum solo. The immaculate start-stop timings of their finale, combined with the singers unfaltering, iconic voice tied up an excellent overall performance that showed that this band only gets better with age.
The spectacle and immensity that QOTSA bring is like no other band and after seeing them now for the second time, I can’t help but ask the question, are they capable of writing a bad song?
SoundWave’s favourite track: