With the unmistakable whip crack of 'No One Knows', Queens Of The Stone Age set the stage for a night to remember.
With vicious precision, the US quintet summoned the California desert from thin air, bringing a generous taste of Joshua Tree to the Sidney Myer Music Bowl (19 February) in Melbourne. Weighing up between QOTSA's two Victorian shows on 'The End Is Nero' tour – Torquay's Lookout Fest and their Sidney Myer Music Bowl headliner – I naturally decided to see both. This would be a providential move – there were to be four tour debuts between the two shows, three of which were performed at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.
Though Josh Homme stated the previous evening that Melbourne would be getting the "dark, gothic sh.t" to contrast with the breezy, outdoor festival atmosphere in Torquay, none could have known how dramatically different the sets would be.
Only half of the 20-odd songs from each show were shared, with early surprises at Sidney Myer Music Bowl including two 'Rated R' cuts back-to-back – beginning with 'The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret'. "Stuck in belief, there is a lie. Promise is promise, an eye for an eye. We've got something to reveal – no one can know how we feel."
The next entrée would be the deliciously lysergic 'Monsters In The Parasol', a psych punk ode to the delirium induced by certain clandestine journeys. "Paul's dad is warped and bubbling, oh well. And my mind is up here on another wave, covered in hair."
This tune, among others which Queens have reworked and rerecorded (including 'Make It Wit Chu' and 'Avon'), has origins stretching back to the 'The Desert Sessions'. This revolving door project has featured the likes of PJ Harvey, Billy Gibbons, Les Claypool, Dean Ween and Matt Berry, to name just a few.
Though one of many incredible Josh Homme side projects, it's here that the heritage of QOTSA can be heard most, forming the seeds of a collaborative lineage that now extends to household names such as The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, Elton John, and Iggy Pop. Each of these early tracks are among the most quintessential, emblematic rockers in the band's eight album catalogue.
Nearing the middle portion of the set, Josh announced the next song would be about rolling into a new town and showing them how you love them – whether they like it or not.
After recently having the privilege of interviewing QOTSA drummer Jon Theodore, I'll admit that I snuck in a small request for Melbourne's show. While Jon did kindly oblige me – saying he'd make sure they'D play 'Misfit Love' in Melbourne – I certainly held no certainty they would.
However they did, and of course, being one of their most sought-after (and rare) live tracks until recently on 'The End Is Nero' tour, its sinister synth intro was met by the most muscular applause of the evening.
This ovation was soon to be muzzled by the tune's searing, venomous stabs of guitar-like synth and synth-like guitar, an industrial beat so wrong that it's right, sauntering like Dracula on his way to cash a cheque at the blood bank. "Where I was born, no escape – there, there ain't even no good bad drugs. In the city, is it true / If you don't, you act like you do? Feast of fools, I can't wait / Give 'em a taste of my misfit love."
Here, multi-instrumentalist Dean Fertita held the fort, hammering out the dry-heaving Moog pulses that underpin the song's mechanical architecture, grounding the storm while Homme and guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen whipped up licks that spluttered and bit.
Meanwhile, bassist Mikey Shoes rasped the robotic refrain of "...thrill, I need a thrill" like his throat was a cheese grater spewing glass from a metal mouth, all the while thrashing through the tune's deceptively dark groove.
'Misfit Love' is a true wonder, a marvellously disgusting slab of raw meat protecting the tender loving heart at its core. Thanks again for that, Jon.
The previous evening in Torquay, fans were treated to the angular 'Battery Acid', another 'Era Vulgaris' deep cut, in addition to 'Need For Speed Underground 2' soundtrack laureate 'In My Head', and 'Songs For The Deaf''s 'Do It Again'.
However, this Monday night in Melbourne would be one of many twists with the band charging through yet another 'Era Vulgaris' favourite. The opening scratches of '3's & 7's' were met with awed applause, being the first time it was played since 2018 (in which it was played only twice, and rarely prior).
'3's & 7's' features one of Homme's most impressive – and complex – guitar solos. Despite not having played it in more than half a decade, the performance was astonishing, with the band navigating its twists and turns like five Steve McQueen's racing in the Grand Prix.
While I'm not frequently inclined to dive into another man's pile of dirty laundry, that half a decade undeniably held deeply personal tribulations for Homme. Recently making appearances on podcasts with comedians Neal Brennan and Bill Burr, he's discussed at length the impact of heartbreak, beating a life-threatening cancer, and the passing of his close friends Anthony Bourdain and QOTSA bandmate, Mark Lanegan.
These experiences are scrawled on the walls of 'In Times New Roman', the group's latest album, in numerous fonts and sizes. A complex, gnarled, yet resoundingly jubilant beast, songs performed from the record swung from the bitter pop send-off of 'Emotion Sickness', to the defiant, elephantine stomp of 'Made To Parade'.
With a band like Queens Of The Stone Age, playing favourites is a fool's game. Just when you're sure there could be nothing you love more, they invariably release an album that worms its way into the back of your brain, crawls down your spine, and burrows into your heart. That's how it felt to hear songs from 'In Times New Roman' played live.
Those tunes cut through with remarkable clarity, accompanied by an invigorated sense of purpose and gratitude that oozed into every note – especially those produced by Josh Homme's larynx.
Sharper than ever, Homme's wit has pleasantly pickled over the years. His stage presence, banter, and genuine care for his audience grow more graceful with every tour, just as the underlying messages of love, and embracing what little time we have, become more overt with each album they release.
After the octave-fuzz solo of 'Little Sister' electrocuted the crowd, the band gave an unconvincing wave goodbye, and left the stage. The previous evening's crowd request landed on the propulsive 'Millionaire'. Tonight however, the first encore song would be offered up to a fan near the front, who'd written 'I Appear Missing' as a sign on a pillow cover.
After asking to keep the item for himself, he remarked upon how beautiful it was to receive a gift from someone's home, where they'd laid their head and made their bed, to take home with him. He then asked about what bodily fluids it had been doused in.
Josh has always wrapped insights in contradictions, revelling in the use of lyrical punchlines to express complex emotions. But on 'I Appear Missing', written after a three-month stint in hospital and having briefly died on the operating table, he lays it out as sincerely as it gets. "Don't cry. With my toes on the edge, it's such a lovely view. I never loved anything until I loved you. I'm over the edge, what can I do?"
After Jon Theodore pummelled through the iconic drum intro of 'A Song For The Dead', it was beautiful to see Josh and guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen trading solos for the second time in 24 hours.
QOTSA never play anything the exact same way twice, and hearing Troy and Josh make one another audibly laugh when playing off each other's improvised guitar motifs – during one of their heaviest and most menacing songs – was a real treat.
Tonight, the band played fast but never loose. With everyone on such fine form, there was plenty of room to flex on the fly, with bassist Mikey Shoes even throwing in a brief passage of the 'Sick, Sick, Sick' bassline into the extended outro of 'A Song For The Dead'.
If you don't follow them closely, it might be hard to believe when I say that 27 years in, Queens of the Stone Age sound better than ever. If people don't know it now, they'll surely know it in a decade – this is the world's greatest living rock band; and if you miss them, well, you're missing out.
