The Tennessee 3 “Walk the Line” and “Orange Blossom Special”
The Tennessee 3 “Ghost Riders in the Sky”
The Tennessee 3 “Folsam Prison Blues” behind The Lodge
The Tennessee 3 “I was There When it Happened” and “Luther Did the Boogie Woogie”
Aesop Rock¬† “None Shall Pass” The Social Pavillion
Spoon “The Underdog” at Firestone
MC Chris at a packed AKA Lounge
Sick Sick Sick!
Queens of the Stone Age descended upon the House of Blues in Orlando and promptly blew the doors off the joint. They kicked off the show with a track from Era Vulgaris, the punky “Battery Acid.” Their gritty, grinding sound translates so well to the live experience that they seem to coast between monster crowd pleasers with crushing force. Next, Josh Homme, beneath a canopy of gothic chandeliers with fiber optic lighting, declared, “I just wanna dance” and slid into “Little Sister” (more cowbell!). The show consisted of a large dose of the new album with a handful of songs from 05′s Lullabies to Paralyze with “Medication” a viscous little bopper being a surprising highlight. They left out a good portion of Rated R. No “Lost Art of Keeping a Secret,” no ‚”Leg of Lamb,” or “Feel Good Hit of the Summer,” but tore the ass out of “I Think I Lost My Headache.”
QOTSA thankfully didn’t forget their roots and sprinkled in a healthy dose of songs from the first album; “Avon‚” “Mexicola” and an extendo-metal-jam of “Regular John” and “You Can’t Quit Me Baby.” Era’s first single, “Sick, Sick, Sick” proved to be just that, completely sick. The band is super tight and Troy van Leeuwen and Josh intertwine and call/respond guitar riffs with elegant ferocity.
Although Joey Castillo is a powerful drummer and an excellent fit for QOTSA, I can’t help to think that Dave Grohl should quit his day job and elevate QOTSA even higher and relegate the Foo Fighters to their true domain, a great side project.
The show was a rousing display of rock fury and the 80 capacity crowd ate it up. I was on the Loge dining on pate (hot dogs) and champale (Stella) and could actually see the show‚ Yay! I must say they may have sounded better here, but at The Tabernacle in Atlanta it was a full-on party replete with chicks in the audience dancing on seats, bars, tables and an alarming number of people vomiting from various degrees of inebriation. Next, I continued the party QOTSA style by dropping my rent money at the Cheetah. Long Live Rock! In Atlanta they played 7 or 8 songs different from the Orlando set. “I Wanna Make It Witchu” and “Suture Up Your Future” were a couple of different tracks and the setlist was in a completely different order – no cookie cutters here my friend. They closed both shows with crushing, face-melting jam-outs of “Song for the Dead” and I was glad to be alive.
Article originally appeared in REAX #18, April 8 2008
“Sick Sick Sick” from The Tabernacle ATL, GA
There was a weird metal crowd with opposing agendas: Marilyn Manson fans and Slayer fans. Although they are metal (Slayer way more so) they represent opposite ends of the metal spectrum. Slayer from the shredding, in-your- face old school of metal and Manson on the Goth, Industrial side.
Slayer blew the place to pieces while Manson was coked-out and disinterested. He threw the mic down and walked off stage in a pout about an hour into it. I think Slayer fans were told by Manson fans that MM puts on a better show. Following the concert metal heads in an attempt to prove that Slayer was better were walking around and asking people, “Which one was better? Slayer or Manson?” or the abbreviated version, “Slayer or Manson?” And when someone answered, “Slayer” there were howls and high fives. Manson fans even reluctantly said Slayer with their heads hung in shame.
“Hell Awaits”
“Raining Blood”
“Mandatory Suicide”
“Drunky McGhee warms up the crowd”
“Love Song”
End of “Antichrist Superstar”
The Smashing Pumpkin residency in Asheville, North Carolina at the Orange Peel was one of the most amazing musical experiences of my life. For a $20 ticket – if you could get one – fans were allowed in to watch soundchecks and hang out with (annoy) the band. Then 9 sold out shows spread out over the first 11 days of July were monster face-melters. 3 1/2 hour plus concerts jam-packed with all kinds of songs. These residencies were meant to break-in the new band – Jeff Schroeder, Ginger Reyes, and Lisa Harrington – and build the pool of songs they could pull from to over a 100. They fine-tuned newer songs, rearranged old songs, and wrote / played songs written during their stay. The band mingled freely with Ashevillians and fans throughout their stay, making themselves available. Local newspapers covered every aspect of the stay, stores offered “Pumpkin Specials,” while other stores were exclusive vendors of custom-collectable merchandise. Just about every person you saw had a “Pumpkin sighting” or story about a casual run-in with various members. The Pumpkins had a different local artist open the show each evening and followed with wildly varied set-lists of their own. Asheville, long known as a psychic center, became the center of the Pumpkin universe and created an energy that the band and the fans shared. This unique perspective is covered in their DVD documentary If All Goes Wrong as well as the sharp contrast to the subsequent residency experience in San Francisco.
“Rotten Apples” at The Orange Peel 7.3.2007
“Starla” at The Orange Peel 7.2.2007
Vicious version of “Silverfuck” at The Orange Peel 7.2.2007
“The Aeroplane Flies High” at The Orange Peel 7.2.2007
A 36 minute “Gossamer” from 7.3.2007