Queens Of The Stone Age

Queens of the Stone Age

Went to Queens of the Stone Age last Wednesday with Amanda and Bernie. The two of them had both seen the Queens twice before, once at Richards on Richards the other time at the Orpheum. For me this was going to be my first Queens show and I was pretty excited. I have really been getting into their new album and I had heard a lot of good things about their live show.

We got to the show at around 9:15pm. Throw Rag was the opening band, yet it didn’t look like they had taken the stage yet. I decided to check out the merch before heading down to my seat. After checking out the merch I decided to pick up the Tara McPherson poster for the show. It is a monster of a print, and a pretty cool design. Plus it was signed and numbered by Tara, making it that much better for my first McPherson print.

I settled into my seat, which was row 11 dead center in the orchestra. Soon after Throw Rag started. I had heard mixed reviews about this band, some saying they were totally crazy and awesome, while others said they really sucked.

Throw Rag took the stage, their lead singer wearing a full captain (yacht) outfit, while the backup vocalist had a washboard hanging from his neck with two cowbells mounted on the bottom of it and a spoon in either hand. For the next 45 minutes Throw Rag rocked out punk style, with some amazingly good sounding washboard solos. I can’t believe how long the guy could go on playing the washboard with his two spoons. Near the end of the show the washboard dude striped himself of his shirt then went running out into the crowd and found someone to drag out onto stage. He then proceeded to strap the washboard on to this kid who went on to play the washboard for the next song. Near the end of the song the guitarist making a big rip on his guitar accidentally caught one of the spoons the kid was using and it went flying off on the stage. As the song was coming to close the kid thought this was a cue to him so he went and threw his spoon as well. When the washboard player came back onto stage he cursed the kid for throwing his spoons that he had just picked up on Hastings from some heroin junkies. The last Throw Rag song the band did more crazy stuff, like crawling on the stage on their bellies, or playing on their knees to make it look like it was a band of midgets. As the final song came to a close the lead singer proceeded to strip himself to his underwear before leaving the stage. Yikes.

Queens took the stage after a short sound check. Josh had a cigarette in his mouth as he walked out onto stage, so much for him having lung problems. As everyone took their instruments they started belting out Someone’s in the Wolf. Personally I thought this was such a perfect way to open a show. “So glad you could stay, Forever”. What was really cool about this song was in between the chorus when you normally hear the “Accchhh”, that noise was done by Natasha, who by the way was totally grooving out. She reminded me of a cat the way she was moving around, playing the keyboard and making special effects!

I am not going to go over the whole set list but wanted to mention a few notes about some songs. Avon and Leg of Lamb were major crowd pleasures. Broken Box I really enjoyed. Before Monsters in the Parasol Josh said “This song is about Acid”. Personally I thought the vocals were too low for Monsters cause I could barely hear Josh’s voice. After Monsters Josh again talked, saying “This next song we are all really proud of and really love to play, it is about a witch”. They then pounded into Burn the Witch, this song is absolutely amazing live. Funny circle of life thing, last time I was at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre was in Grade 11 with Amanda and Bernie to watch the play the Crucible, a play about the witch hunts, or burning witches. Right after burn the witch Josh goes “Here is a song for my little sister”, and they kick into Little Sister. Another favorite of mine from the new album and absolute golden live. Next up was No One Knows which clocked in easily over 10 minutes. Songs for the Dead was without Mark Lannagan, yet Josh did a good job of filling in. I Never Came another favorite of mine from the new album was spot on. Long Slow Goodbye was the first of two encore songs. Troy opened the encore first by playing a bit of a solo after being introduced by Natasha “This is Troy, he is a real badass”. While wolf was a perfect opener this was a perfect closer. To finish things off Josh goes “This is the first song off our first album.” and they bust into easily a 10 minute version of Regular John. It was really cool seeing Troy and Josh playing off each other both playing in sync with the same notes. They did this for like a minute straight and only missed one note I think.

All in all this show was very excellent, I really enjoyed it. While the sound could have been a bit better, and the vocals a little louder I didn’t mind the seated venue, probably because I was row 11. I am really glad I got tickets for this concert, and it made me really appreciate the new album even more. This concert also made me realize how talented Josh is and how this band can go without the likes of Nick or Mark and still rock as hard or harder.