By: Cora Linos

Queens of the Stone Age: Catacombs Tour – The Chicago Theatre, Chicago, IL

Words could not possibly do this show justice, but I’ll give it my best shot:

Unlike anything I’ve ever experienced: transcendent, ethereal, spellbinding, dangerous–wait, who gave Josh a meat cleaver??

Queens of the Stone Age just left for Europe to continue playing historic theatres on their Catacombs tour. I used up my last bit of luck to win a free ticket hours before showtime to see them on the opening night in Chicago, a show that had been sold out for months.

I fell in love with Queens this summer after seeing them play Breese Stevens here in Madison. One of my favorite things is going to see a band I’ve heard amazing things about but never really listened to, and Queens did not disappoint. I was quickly addicted to their singular sound and the gravitational pull of charismatic frontman Joshua Homme aka “Ginger Elvis.”

Needless to say, I was excited to hear they’d be back to the midwest so soon. Unfortunately, tickets were far out of this law student’s meager budget and I resigned myself to watching clips on Instagram the next day. But the concert gods blessed me when a kind Queens fan decided to give away a free ticket and chose me. I received the news halfway home and skipped my exit, continuing on toward Chicago. Rush hour traffic granted me the opportunity to change and do my makeup, as the tour announcement encouraged fans to “dress to impress.”

Breakdown:

Queens of the Stone Age are known for their intense, high-energy shows. And on this tour, they brought along an orchestra equipped with violin, viola, cello, tuba, trombone, trumpet, french horn, and a percussion section. In addition to your traditional rock band instruments. The result was a truly magical reimagining of some of their deep cuts, blended with some hits and even an unreleased song. This show freed many songs from perdition, being played for the first time in years. The stripped back arrangement of the songs allowed Homme’s Bowie-esque vocals to take center stage. The show was split up into three acts and an encore.

Act 1:

I was grabbed from the first song as Homme walked through the crowd, up the aisle, and onto stage, taking a seat on a stool and illuminating his face with a handheld lamp as his voice echoed acapella through the beautiful theatre. Never has a Queens’ audience been so silent as we all sat entranced, afraid to miss a single second. The first act consisted of the songs from Queens’ most recent release: Alive in the Catacombs, which was recorded in the catacombs under Paris. The beautiful stripped back renditions of songs on this album were incredible to witness on stage. As the band slipped back behind the curtain at the end of Act 1, I caught a glimpse of the orchestra to be revealed in Act 2.

Highlight: “Running Joke/Paper Machete” Homme’s acapella vocals were absolutely gorgeous.

Act 2:

After a brief interlude during which we sat in the dark and listened to Homme read poetry, the curtain slid open to reveal an orchestra tuning up, bathed in a red light. The tuning instruments were slowly drowned out by the loud, low droning notes of the tuba, soon joined by sharp, punctuated strings, creating an intoxicating beat to which Homme danced out onto the stage…then grabbed a meat cleaver and proceeded to swing it around, directing the orchestra, band, and audience, as the band went into a medley of “Someone’s in the Wolf,” “A Song for the Deaf” and “Straight Jacket Fitting.” If you’d never heard these songs, you’d think they’d been written as one song.  The orchestra blended incredibly in the new arrangements, adding an unexpected and intense edge. Homme took a brief break between songs to pontificate on poetry, respecting worms, and the inevitability of becoming worm food. This act broke out a Them Crooked Vultures (Homme’s side project with Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin)) song, “Spinning in Daffodils,” to the surprise and delight of the audience.

Highlight: “Keep Your Eyes Peeled” This song opened with a Delta Machine-era Depeche Mode-type beat from drummer Jon Theadore and carried a frenzied, barely controlled energy.

Act 3:

The final act felt a little more like your typical Queens show, featuring more guitar/drums/bass heavy songs. Act 3 opened with “You’ve Got a Killer Scene There, Man,” unplayed since 2007. Guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen’s sexy, slinky playing perfectly accompanied Homme’s sultry vocals, reminiscent of a lounge act. This act featured Homme announcing his mayoral candidacy, running on a platform that I can’t repeat on a school site (but one which you can find on YouTube). To my surprise, bassist Michael “Mikey Shoes” Shuman ditched his bass and took the mic on “Auto Pilot,” convincing myself, and many other fans, that he should do so more often. Highlight: “Easy Street” After the show, I spoke to fans about this song as we tried to figure out if it was a deep cut, a cover, or an unreleased song. It was soon revealed that “Easy Street” is unreleased, and that we had just witnessed its live debut. The song has a lovely, light vibe with the orchestra setting down their instruments to provide the gentle clapping that carried the song along with a poppy piano part played by multi-instrumentalist Dean Fertita. (Don’t tell Josh, but this song reminds me of “Kiss the Girl”, albeit with more adult lyrics.)

Encore:

For the first time all night, the audience stood for an absolutely gorgeous version of “Long Slow Goodbye” from Homme who was joined halfway through by Shoes, accompanied only by jingle bells and the rhythmic clapping of the audience. Their vocals echoed through the decorated ceilings of the historic theatre, creating an overwhelming spiritual energy that nearly reduced me to tears.

Photo: Cora Linos