The Riverstage crowd (28 August) brewed in a chattering slur of anticipation, waiting for Queens Of The Stone Age.
Freshly stirred by the voodoo swing of support act C.W. Stoneking, the audience - a mix of youthful and older fans - were ready and cracking their necks in preparation for the show ahead. No surprise they went off like an army ready for mayhem when their Queens sauntered onto the stage.
This was the Brisbane leg of QOTSA's 'Villains' tour and they seemed like villains indeed. Josh Homme strutting slowly about with a curled lip, dressed all in black with his hair slicked back and leering over the crowd like some sly and devilish rooster.
He was followed closely by the rest of the band, who all seemed to have slithered right out of Slytherin in order to lay some dark magic upon us. Without a word they cast the spell and burst into the opening track: 'If I Had A Tail'. It worked.
The crowd was whipped straight into a jovial rampage that moshed with a pressing of sweaty flesh, prodding elbows and banging heads until the very end. I sit here even now with bruises on my arms and pains in my neck for which I have no regrets.
Though it wasn't all madness. Despite the carnage swirling 'round in the crowd, the power of the band's musicianship and the quality of their sound shone through with awesome clarity.
Elbows may have been in ribs, but all eyes were pointed at the stage to witness the rare sight of these wild wizards working masterfully at their instruments.
QOTSA are one of those bands who ooze experience. Who have long since cracked the code of their craft and are able to play mind-blowing difficult and intricate music without seeming to break a sweat.
Their music is hard and heavy, but by no means is it messy. It is structured, layered and thought out with precision. They work with ten-tonne tones and subterranean sounds, yet sew them together as if they were as light as air and thread.
Each player is sharp and on-point, and as a whole the performance was one of the tightest I've ever seen.
The set itself was fantastically curated too. They kept it pretty full on for the first half of the show, making sure that our blood was hot and that we were fully immersed in the madness with big, fun songs like 'Feet Don't Fail Me', 'The Way You Used To Do', 'In The Fade', 'God Is In The Radio', 'Make It Wit Chu' and of course the classic 'No One Knows', which was marked with a five-minute drum solo by Jon Theodore.
With a segue of hilarious banter from Josh, QOTSA moved from the intensity into a slower and more melodic pace, tickling the skin and plucking at the deep fibres with 'I Appear Missing' and 'Villains Of Circumstance' back to back.
There was something more tender and soulful about this point in the set that stood out all the more because of how much we had been thrashing about before being allowed to drop into this emotional gulf for a moment of respite.
Of course it wasn't long before they threw us back into the fire, limbs shaking and heads banging. But still, for me there was something about that softer moment that made for the most memorable part of the set.
They finished off the show with 'Go With The Flow', which was an absolute ripper. So much so that the crowd very loudly demanded an encore - no surprise there.
They walked back on stage showing much gratitude then gave us what we asked for. A good, old-fashioned spanking by the hand of 'You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire' and 'A Song For The Dead'.
The last song, in particular, seemed to go on forever - thrashing wave after wave pouring forth from the inexhaustible QOTSA. The mosh reached the peak of its insanity in this final moment.
