Queens Incinerate Center Stage in Hotlanta
Queens of the Stone Age unleashed a precise and brutal attack on Atlanta’s Center Stage Theater (formerly Earthlink Live) Monday night. QOTSA kicked off this mini tour in support of the re-release of their eponymous debut album at SXSW a few days ago. Usually I’m not big on re-releases, especially when the original release was digital, but any excuse to catch a Queens show is good enough for me.
They blasted through their first album in its entirety with just a few shuffles of song placement for better live presence. Songs like “Regular John” and “Avon” are usually delivered in extendo-jam versions at shows, but Queens played the majority of the Queens of the Stone Age as it is heard on the album. Jams were reserved for “Solid Gold” and “The Fun Machine Took a Shit and Died.”
Although the songs were kept to their album presentation they were tightly wound and precisely executed with josh Homme’s patented buzzsaw assault. The band was seamless and effortlessly peeled off song after song with a blend of well-oiled ease and brute force. The small-ish venue was enraptured from the first note and whipped into a frenzy by songs like “Mexicola” and post-Queens of the Stone Age releases in “Feel Good Hit of the Summer,” “Little Sister, “Something in the Wolf” and by the crushing fury of the uber face-smasher “Song for the Dead.”
The guys are lean, mean, and sounding like a fucking flaming freight train of rock. I imagine this is a tour to breach new ears with and rally support for the re-release, but also to tune-up the rock chops for final recording and touring behind a new album which better be out soon.