Last Tuesday Queens of the Stone Age played an epic rock show at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre. QOTSA don’t hold anything back on their live performance; they explode saturating the senses with both auditory and visual excess. Once they start playing there’s no escape from their grip. They make their ballads sound heavy and their rock songs sound like a freaking hurricane.
Josh Homme continuously expressed his gratitude between songs talking the audience and appearing genuinely humbled by people’s response (the crowd at the ACC was on fire). On the role, Josh is the ultimate front man, his guitar playing and his singing is intense but calculated, his attitudes so suave he gives the impression of a postmodern Elvis.
The truth is the entire band is impressive, all of them masters in their craft, all charismatic and cool. I was standing in front of the bass-player, Micky “Shoes” so I got to see his skills and moves up close, which really impressed me. The new drummer John Theodore, former Mars Volta member was also pretty intense with machine-like precision and power. On the opposite side of the stage Troy Van Leeuwen playing guitar, steel guitar and maracas among other instruments and Dean Fertita on keyboard and also guitar (lots of guitars).
They played almost all songs from their new album …Like Clockwork, opening the show with My God is the Sun and then going into Songs for the Deaf mode with You Think I Ain’t Worth a Dollar… followed by No One Knows. My personal highlights were Better Living Through Chemistry, which happened in front of a giant wall of white noise and the closing with Song for the Dead, which is basically 7 minutes of heavy-metal-punk-heaven.
Here’s Song for the Dead live at Reading. Ready? Full screen mode, volume up and headbang away…
Setlist:
My God Is the Sun
You Think I Ain’t Worth a Dollar, but I Feel Like a Millionaire
No One Knows
Burn the Witch
First It Giveth
Keep Your Eyes Peeled
Kalopsia
In the Fade
…Like Clockwork
If I Had a Tail
Make It Wit Chu
Little Sister
Smooth Sailing
I Sat by the Ocean
Better Living Through Chemistry
Sick, Sick, Sick
Go With the Flow
Encore:
The Vampyre of Time and Memory
I Appear Missing
A Song for the Dead