If you haven't heard of Queens of the Stone Age, I suggest you pick up one of their albums. They all kick major ass and are sure to please because hey, who doesn't like a little bit of harder rock every once in a while?
In a little less than a month, Queens of the Stone Age will be kicking off a 14-date North American tour to commemorate the reissue of their self-titled debut album from 1998 with a date here in New Orleans at One Eyed Jack's, a 400-capacity venue on Toulouse down in the quarter. Why is that a big deal? The last time Queens of the Stone age played here in New Orleans was a headlining slot at VooDoo in 2005. Last summer they were the friday night headliners at the massive European music festival Reading and Leeds.
Lucky for me, my brother got us 2 tickets. As you might be able to guess, I'm beyond excited.
Joshua Homme ("Homme" rhymes with "mommy") is one of the most interesting musicians I can think of. He has self-described "musical schizophrenia" and is not only in Queens of the Stone Age, but also plays the drums for Eagles of Death Metal and is the frontman for Them Crooked Vultures, his Grammy-winning collaboration with John Paul Jones (of Led Zeppelin) and Dave Grohl (of Nirvana and Foo Fighters). His music ranges from the deep guitar jabs to Stones-esque sleaze to stoner-rock heaven, and he pulls it off well. As the main songwriter for 2 out of the 3 bands that he regularly plays in, he's got his hands full and is one of the hardest working men in the business now, whether he's touring, recording with one of his bands, or producing acts like Arctic Monkeys or Spinnerette. Josh is one of the most humorous musicians I listen to, slipping puns and wordplay into nearly every song he writes (as well as helping the wonderful people over at Record Store Day out by doing this amazing video for last year's event).
But Josh is also known for being one of the biggest assholes when it comes to being on stage. More often then not, Josh rips into audience members during shows who are acting in a way he does not deem appropriate. Personally, I think his anger is often justified, but what he says is usually out of line and rather offensive. Usually he's reacting to a fan's stupidity, but when you're going to call some kid a "chickenshit fucking faggot" you might be taking it a little too far.
It's episodes like this that make me wonder how the people he works with stick have stuck around for so long- Troy Van Leeuwen and Joey Castillo have been around since the beginning, and friends like Dave Grohl and Alain Johannes have been working with him since the early part of the 2000s.
Onstage antics aside, Josh knows how to put on a show. He switches instruments constantly, can play guitar like a madman (and sing at the same time) and is pretty innovative when it comes to cool sounds. It's very cool for me to listen to songs off of the first Queens of the Stone Age album that so heavy you could almost call them metal ("Avon," anyone?), where as several of the songs from his latest works are slow-burning blues ("Make It Wit Chu" is the perfect example). Granted, musical progression makes absolute sense, especially when you've been doing it as long as he has, so I applaud him for having such a wide array of styles that he rocks.
(Get it? "Rocks"? It's a "stone" pun.)
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