If the rest of the QOTSA shows on tour were like this guy described it, I'm sorry I missed it.
http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Artists/Q/Quee...3-sun.html
Concert Review: Queens Of The Stone Age
Shaw Conference Centre, Edmonton - August 29, 2007
By MIKE ROSS -- Sun Media
EDMONTON -- If you take perverse pleasure in ambitious spectacles of bad music like I do, this has been a great summer for concerts - which is why last night's Queens of the Stone Age show was such a refreshing yet confusing change.
Ah, yes, I remember now. This is what good live music is like.
Let's review. There was the Police, which actually wasn't bad, but shouldn't have charged so much for being so poorly rehearsed.
There was Tim and Faith, who were spectacularly hokey. There was Hilary Duff phoning it in for the money. There was Bon Jovi, which was just flat out awful.
There was multi-talented Justin Timberlake, who hasn't quite figured out how to best deploy his multi talents within a super colossal pop/rock/soul/urban hoedown for 18,000 screaming women.
In each of these cases, this observer couldn't help but be entertained by performers trying so hard for such mixed results, except for Bon Jovi, which doesn't have to try to be bad.
Enough about those guys. Some irate female is going to brain me with a frying pan if I keep this up.
And now we come to the effective end of summer in Edmonton and Queens of the Stone Age.
Who the hell are Queens of the Stone Age, you ask? Good question.
They're an "art-metal" band from California with numerous connections to grunge rock heroes you may have heard of.
This band has no hit singles. They attract no high fashion endorsements.
Last night, they drew a mere 3,000 people to the Shaw Conference Centre - a crowd singer Josh Homme deemed "f---ing fantastic." Bet he says that about all the crowds.
And Queens or QOTSA or whatever fans call them don't make music that easily fits in your mind on first hearing. You have to chew on it a while.
What they did last night was to cement their status as some of the heaviest hitters in modern rock.
Lit by monster chandeliers and dressed in identical black shirts except for the drummer who wore none, the band turned it full blast from the first note.
You know that feeling when your scalp starts to vibrate across your skull from the sonic pressure, coupled with the hair on the back of your neck standing up? This was like that.
The relentless riffing began with You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire - there's something to chew on - and didn't let up until I had to leave the show to make deadline, though it in all likelihood lasted longer for the fans who were there.
Early highlights included extended songs from the new album, Era Vulgaris, along with older material like Do It Again, which especially rocked. Fans lost their minds, and near the front, their shoes and shirts, too.
It was a powerful experience. Up to three guitars were banging away at the same time.
Homme sang at times like Chris Isaak - now that was odd - and at others like Robert Plant. Perhaps a weird combination of both.
At other times, strange synths would burble over bizarre chord changes.
Yes, I am aware I am using words like weird and strange and bizarre more often than necessary. These are words not often associated with Justin Timberlake, though they are sometimes seen in context with Britney Spears.
No, in a word, QOTSA is different - glaringly, confusingly, thrillingly different.
The unexpected turn or twist in the raging inferno of their performance is what makes it much more interesting than your usual heavy metal concert.
Opening the evening, Cage the Elephant exploded the misconception that bands from Kentucky are all about banjos and hillbillies.
No, some of them talk about smoking weed and sound like a hippie spawn of the Black Crowes and Led Zeppelin - like this one.
While these guys often reached beyond their abilities in both performance and songwriting with sloppy, boozy results, they made up for it with lots and lots of energy.
Besides, going for broke at the risk of falling flat on your face, even when you do, is an admirable trait.
With song titles like Free Love, earnest if heavy-handed social commentary and a full-blast approach surely inspired by their headliner, Cage the Elephant rocked so hard the singer literally blew his pants open.
It was a good gig.
