Queens Of The Stone Age Amp Up The Power

Somewhere along the line, Josh Homme had to get sick of the chatter. That's what it's been, mostly, since he fired bassist Nick Oliveri shortly after Queens Of The Stone Age enjoyed their most successful touring stretch to support Songs For The Deaf. When Lullabies To Paralyze came out, some said the group lacked variation without Oliveri's vocal contributions, others insisted the bald and shirtless member's absent energy was hurting the band. So Homme came back after taking almost all of last year off with QOTSA's most intricately constructed effort, Era Vulgaris, and a live lineup featuring regulars Troy Van Leeuwen and Joey Castillo, plus Wires On Fire bassist Michael Shuman and Raconteurs utility member Dean Fertita. Their contest winners-only gig at the Guvernment on Tuesday night was their first showcase on Canadian soil and, sure enough, they pummelled the chatter into the ground.

Playing a venue as small as the Guvernment helped. Well, so did the drink tickets the Molson Canadian Rocks crew provided the crowd with on the way in. The vicious guitar assault of "Do It Again" immediately whipped the beer-soaked audience into a sweaty frenzy. The marijuana haze kicked in moments later with the booming bass line from "Feel Good Hit Of The Summer." Shuman's presence was the immediately noticeable difference between this incarnation of Queens and the last. I don't think that Oliveri's departure was a serious setback for the band musically, but replacing him with Alain Johannes was like substituting Mick Jagger with Todd Rundgren. He's a studio talent, not a stage presence. Shuman not only played with tons of enthusiasm, he added an aesthetic that fit with the group's image (where Johannes looked like a homeless person).

The older material sounded tighter than the last time around, but it was the new songs that truly excelled with the five-member set. "Sick, Sick, Sick" and "3's & 7's" leapt straight out of the speakers, their complex arrangements coming through crystal clear in the small space. "Battery Acid" and "Misfit Love" also sounded more urgent with Fertita's keyboards and Van Leeuwen's always steady guitar work (both alternated between keys and guitars throughout the night).

At the centre of it all was the only man who had been there from the start. Homme played the guitar like a man possessed and showed that Era Vulgaris' challenging vocal work could be replicated with ease. He led the group through epic versions of "Mexicola," "Better Living Through Chemistry" and B-sides "Era Vulgaris" and "The Fun Machine Took A Shit And Died," the latter of which was dedicated to a fan who threw a shoe at Fertita.

"I'm gonna take the other shoe, tie it around your dick and cut it off," Homme quipped. "I've spent my whole life trying to get rid of you fuckers. By the way, your mother has AIDS.

"It's amazing that got cheers since I'd say about 50 per cent of the crowd would have done the same. For the most part, they were a sweaty, trampling mess. But I'm not going to fault Molson Canadian Rocks for riling up the crowd, since a) every QOTSA club show crowd is exactly the same and b) the beer company put together one of the most complete concert experiences I've ever had. First, they gave everyone free beer. Then they provided one of the best mainstream rock bands in the world. And to top it all off, they gave everybody taxi vouchers at the end of the night to get home. Not too shabby. Actually, it was pretty fucking great.

Here is the QOTSA set list:

"Do It Again"

"Feel Good Hit Of The Summer"

"Sick, Sick, Sick"

"3's & 7's"

"Mexicola"

"Better Living Through Chemistry"

"Era Vulgaris"

"I Never Came"

"Burn The Witch"

"Misfit Love"

"Little Sister"

"Battery Acid"

"Make It Wit Chu"

"The Fun Machine Took A Shit And Died"

"Go With The Flow"

"Song For The Dead"