Queens Of The Stone Age Take Requests

As much as I enjoyed their intimate show at the Guvernment this past August, the last Queens Of The Stone Age concert was almost entirely ruined for me by the drunken idiots packed into the venue. Come to think of it, that's been the case almost every other time I've seen the band. Thankfully, though, despite the meatheads still coming out in droves, the elegant atmosphere of the Hummingbird, er, Sony Centre helped create one of the most enjoyable QOTSA experiences I've had to date.

Given the setting, I was expecting something a bit more lavish than what the Queens usually deliver, which is to say a bit more than your standard plugged-in performance. But this wasn't to be. The band's stage set-up was more or less exactly the same as it was at the Guvernment and they didn't seem to make much use of the venue aside from a light show that would have been immensely entertaining on its own.

This was perfectly fine, as the desert rockers put on an impeccably solid set that ended up being even more intimate than the audience could have expected. About a quarter of the way through, band leader Josh Homme admitted to having some technical difficulties, most notably with multi-instrumentalist Troy Van Leeuwen's guitars constantly shorting out. At this point, Homme began to take requests from the crowd, and this is where things really started to heat up.

As was mentioned in the review for their previous Toronto date, this incarnation of QOTSA has significantly tightened up from a live perspective. New recruits Dean Fertita and Michael Shuman already seem like they've been playing with the band for years, which was exemplified early on in the set via newer cuts "River In The Road" and "Misfit Love." Where the band's chemistry really came into play was during the requests. With such a huge back catalogue, it's amazing that Homme, let alone the two newbies, even remembers how to play half these songs.

Nevertheless, all five members played through classic Queens songs from their self-titled debut as if it were their latest record. Playing "If Only," "You Can't Quit Me, Baby" and "Avon" in one set would make it an automatic winner, but by adding Rated R standout "In The Fade" and the rarely played Songs For The Deaf track "The Sky Is Fallin'" in the mix, the band left just about everyone satisfied. Props to the dude who requested the excellent B-side, "Infinity." I felt your pain when Homme shot that one down.

Compared to the aforementioned Guvernment gig, Homme and company seemed far more comfortable with each other, letting the songs unwind a bit. The frontman joked about people who might find their dicking around somewhat irritating, but the guys sound far better when they loosen up instead of making things too tight. They seem to have found a solid middle ground between the rigid performances at the beginning of this tour and the overly jam-centric ones at the end of their Lullabies To Paralyze circuit. I pray this lineup sticks around for a while, because it's the strongest they've had in years.