Queens show guitar prowess at Marquee

By ALBERT CHING
Get Out
May 19, 2005

Let’s just skip any cutesy puns about the Queens of the Stone Age “ruling,” or “reigning” Wednesday night at the Marquee Theatre — and simply say that the Seattle-area troupe deftly delivered their unique brand of hard rock, primarily due to some incredibly skillful guitar work.

Despite a quicker personnel turnaround than the Arizona Diamondbacks’ infield, including the recent departure of bassist and band co-founder Nick Oliveri, the Queens expertly plowed through their 90-minute set, pleasing the very near capacity crowd.
“The show was awesome, one of the best I’ve been to,” said Scott Bryant, 29, of Tempe.

Promoting their recently released fourth album “Lullabies To Paralyze,” which spawned one of their biggest radio hits to date in “Little Sister” (not to mention a stint as the musical guest on last week’s “Saturday Night Live”), the band chose to kick off their latest tour in Tempe. Perhaps not a surprising choice, as frontman/Craig Kilborn-doppleganger Josh Homme claimed onstage to have once lived in the area and joked that it was “quite possible” that he had a drunken, amorous encounter at some point with an audience member.

Homme added goofy banter throughout the show, lettings fans know “they tune because they care,” after halting the start of “Lullabies” track “Everybody Knows That You’re Insane” twice because of out-of-key issues.
Naturally, his greatest contribution was blistering solos like that in breakthrough hit “No One Knows.” The band often extended songs to allow for his fiery fretwork exhibitions.

Although the Queens are primarily thought of as a “stoner rock” band, appropriate given Homme’s former band Kyuss and their integral role in that genre, they indulged their diverse influences, infusing blues riffs into songs like “Burn The Witch.” Throughout the set, Homme displayed a wider vocal range than evident in his recorded work.

The stage set-up highlighted the dark tone of the songs, with the first part of the gig portrayed the band almost in silhouette; draping them in darkness with only a few scant footlights visible.
“The lighting really added to the performance,” said Kelly Snailum, 29, of Phoenix.

The new band members did an admirable job of keeping up with Homme. Alain Johannes, in the unenviable position of replacing Oliveri on bass, held his own despite heavy expectations. It was unclear throughout the night exactly what keyboardist Natasha Schneider (one of the latest additions) added to the collective, as her work was consistently drowned out by the thrashing guitars and bombastic percussion.

The Queens were preceded by the Eagles of Death Metal, who performed rousing garage rock to the appreciative crowd. The band started as a Josh Homme side project, with him playing drums, but he didn’t join them on this night (unless he is eerily convincing at dressing in drag).

One of the few negatives coming from the show is the always abominable parking situation at the Marquee located just north of Tempe Town Lake, with many fans forced to park on the far side of the water in downtown Tempe. Perhaps the management should provide a ferry service across the bridge for the multitudes of concertgoers. Security was also curiously severe, requiring all attendees to remove their shoes for inspection.

Set List:
Someone’s in the Wolf
Feel Good Hit of the Summer
The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret
You Would Know
Medication
No One Knows
Avon
Broken Box
Leg of Lamb
Monster in the Parasol
In My Head
Little Sister
Burn the Witch
Everybody Knows That You’re Insane (aborted) Tangled Up In Plaid Go with the Flow Song for the Dead

Encore:
Regular John
I Never Came