After making the Coachella Valley famous in the music world, Palm Desert’s own Joshua Homme has returned home.
With his band Kyuss, Homme established and popularized a heavy sound that would go on to be defined as desert rock. First performing at desert generator shows—where bands and fans would go out into the middle of the Mojave to catch some rock—the group quickly achieved worldwide success, becoming one of metal music’s most influential bands.
After Kyuss broke up, Homme started Queens of the Stone Age, a band that would channel the same desert energy into heavy, dancy jams that would dominate charts and sell out venues.
The latest experiment from Queens of the Stone Age: The band went down into the Catacombs of Paris to film a live concert. Instead of blaring through their list of loud hits like “No One Knows,” “Little Sister” or “3’s & 7’s,” the band, along with a symphony, performed stripped-down, emotionally moving versions of both heavy and soft songs from the band’s catalog. Alive in the Catacombs was released as a concert film and an EP in June.
The newly opened Plaza Theatre in Palm Springs will host a screening of the Alive in the Catacombs concert film, as well as a behind-the-scenes documentary, on Tuesday, Dec. 9. Homme will attend the screening and take part in a Q&A.
Plaza Theatre Foundation board member Brian Ray told me recently that Homme’s love for the Plaza runs deep, as the future desert legend would frequently beg his mom to take him to the movies there when he was younger. During a recent Zoom interview, Homme confirmed his love for local theaters.
“The Plaza, the Camelot, and there was also Palms to Pines that had a cool look on the inside, too,” Homme said. “We’re playing a show in Santa Barbara at the Arlington Theatre, and it was totally picked because it looks like the Plaza. When you go, it’s like a little Mexican village at night. It was as cool as any movie, just walking in there.”
Homme was heavily involved in Rock the Plaza, a 2022 benefit concert that raised funds to restore the theater. He believes that the Plaza, along with other historic and beautiful Coachella Valley landmarks, should be cherished.
“Things like that should be preserved, as much (as possible), so that downtown is like a village still,” he said. “When they tore down all of Cathedral City thinking they were going to build something else, I thought, ‘Oh man, it’s a big swing.’ There’s still kind of nothing there. All those little Spanish-looking buildings and all that stuff that was there was kind of cool.”
The return of the Plaza comes at a time when the desert is home to arena events, consistent casino shows and a couple of world-famous festivals—in contrast to the desert in which Homme grew up, where a lack of support for music pushed him and his friends out into nature to create their own fun.
“I think the lack of things to do, and a community chasing the kids out into the extremities of the desert, was a good thing, because it gave us ownership of the scene and all the moves you made,” he said. “You had to be committed, so you couldn’t half-step. They call it the gift of nothing: You’re so bored that you create your own fun, and you learn to play guitar; you learn to play drums; you learn to play piano, which takes time.”
Homme credits the unforgiving nature of generator shows for teaching him the importance of failure.
“It’s fun to fail, and funner still to stand up again, and I think instruments and things like that are about the joy of failing forward, and failing in your footsteps,” he said.
The Alive in the Catacombs screening in Palm Springs marks a rare desert appearance for Homme. Besides a few Coachella appearances from both Queens of the Stone Age and Desert Sessions, and his opening of a “musical pathway” at the Children’s Discovery Museum in Rancho Mirage in 2019, locals don’t see too much of the icon.
“I don’t have hometown blues or anything like that at all,” Homme said. “I love spending time in the desert, and I enjoy watching how Joshua Tree and the low dez have really grown. I certainly have a nostalgia for how things were in both areas, but not one that I hold on to too tightly.”
Homme is elated to see a surge in “good venues” in the desert, and dropped a hint about the Alive in the Catacombs tour, during which the band plays the same set from their concert film, as well as other tunes from their discography in unique, reworked ways.
“We’re talking about adding dates (to the Catacombs tour) just so I can come home and play there, because I want to be able to bring all this stuff home,” he said.
On the Catacombs tour,a few slow and dramatic tunes from Queens of the Stone Age’s discography have been perfect fits alongside the band’s concert-film arrangements, while other tunes, like Them Crooked Vultures’ “Spinning in Daffodils” and bluesy desert jams like “Fortress” are reshaped to fit the theatrical, operatic vibe.
“The Catacombs film and the tour is a sort of announcement of a new era. We’re just going to take the mantra of, ‘We’re just going to do anything,’ and amplify that even more.”
Josh homme
“Ninety percent of these songs are written on the edge of a bed with an acoustic while you tap your foot,” Homme said. “In many ways, they get revealed, and in many cases, get heavier with less. Sometimes we play loud, and sometimes we play soft, and I don’t think there’s a need to pick or choose or say, ‘We’re only going to do this, and we’re only going to do that.’ I’m 52 years old, and over the years, I don’t like less music; I like more. It’s natural to try to find your way to age and incorporate new things that you’re into.”
Homme said Queens of the Stone Age is currently in their “mystery box era,” where anything goes. The band is no stranger to pushing boundaries—for example, debuting a brand-new song with no warning, or playing a full-fledged arena-rock show on an off-date from their Catacombs tour.
“I love to announce tours and not say anything about what they’re going to be like, and those first few shows shock and surprise and awe people,” he said. “The Catacombs film and the tour is a sort of announcement of a new era. We’re just going to take the mantra of, ‘We’re just going to do anything,’ and amplify that even more.”
Homme said he’s grown to better appreciate the things that come after writing and recording a song.
“Making music and spending time really crafting that, and doing that until you love it, is one part of the process, and the next is finding an interesting way of leaving breadcrumbs and making that mystery unfurling,” he said. “The hints and the suggestions and the misdirection and the darkness and the light—that’s a fun puzzle and a bit of music in its own manner as well. There’s a melody to how to release something and to enjoy teasing. There’s something almost overtly sexual about it, too. There’s a lot of foreplay there, and I think it’s a shame to skip all that stuff.”
Alive in the Catacombs, with a Q&A featuring Josh Homme, will screen at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 9, at the Plaza Theatre, at 128 S. Palm Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs. Tickets are $30. For tickets and more information, visit www.palmspringsplazatheatre.com.