Just about every lead singer can talk the talk, but how many can walk? Josh Homme, frontman, founder, and lead shredder in Queens of the Stone Age, is a rare breed these days. A lead singer that can throw a tantrum and threaten to kick someones ass, but actually be able to knock their fuckin’ teeth out. We all know about Axl Rose’s temper. Let’s say, for some reason, Axl singled me out in the crowd and jumped in after me. Axl is about 5’8″ and in his hay day was about 145lbs soaking wet. I would literally grab him by the face and throw him back on stage. That’s not going to happen with Joshua. Some people assert that QOTSA lacks that sense of danger they had with Nick Oliveri. Nick might have been a maniac, but Josh is pretty damn dangerous. Take the incident at The Mahaffey Theater Tuesday night.
Read my review of the QOTSA show from the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg, FL at Suburban Apologist
Photo by Bridget Burke
The band took a break from working our faces like a speed bag to slow down the pace momentarily with a song from Like Clockwork … “The Vampyre of Time and Memory.” Here is where an intoxicated fan took advantage of the intimate nature of the theater to make his way on stage and show his love for Josh. Homme don’t play that. This sturdily built bearded dude wrapped up Josh from behind in a bear hug. Josh jumped up to subdue the guy. This fella, drunk and determined, got a little squirrely and slipped away. You could see a change come over Homme and calmly say to himself, “not in my store you don’t.” It almost seemed like he was putting an Aikido move on the dude. Josh placed one hand on beardy’s shoulder and another on this guy’s wrist. He seemed to get leverage with the wrist hold then pulled the guy’s shirt over his head hockey fight style and pitched him headlong into the orchestra pit. My video picks up just as the guy disappears into the pit:
Mr Homme has a history of not taking shit from pussies. When you’re 6’4″ and probably close to 240lbs your swagger comes with a little more authority. Here is a compilation of Josh calling people the fuck out:
The funniest part of this compilation is that half of these instances are a big, badass, American rock ‘n roll hero telling Euro-trash that he is going to fuck them up. Haha! U-S-A! U-S-A!
Orlando fans may recognize this section of the compilation. This might have been my first or second QOTSA show. It was the $2 MTV concert. Here is my first taste of Homme’s no bullshit policy. He basically straight-arms a pretty large dude right off the stage:
Here is a little jam to get Orlando ready for Friday night’s Queens of the Stone Age concert at Hard Rock Live