<\/p>\n
Josh Homme<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, rock outfit Queens of the Stone Age brought its new Catacombs Tour to the Paramount Theatre, transforming Seattle\u2019s grand historical landmark into something far stranger and darker than unexpected \u2014 even for a band that hasn’t, in its career, shied away from the strange, dark, and unexpected.<\/p>\n
In order to evoke the same mysterious atmosphere as the Paris ossuary that inspired this tour, the band has chosen to perform only in historical theaters \u2014 places where character, intimacy, and reverence abound. Even before the group walked out, the room vibrated with anticipation \u2014 the kind usually reserved for something sacred or dangerous. The stage design leaned heavily into an ominous, catacombs-like aesthetic. No giant screens, no unnecessary paraphernalia. What soon stood out most was the sheer confidence of the setlist, populated with B sides, rarities, and lesser-known fodder. Absent, in fact, were all the easy crowd-pleasers. The result was one of the most immersive and unusual performances the city is likely to see this year.<\/p>\n
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Frontman Josh Homme, sporting a slick maroon-colored suit and a black shirt with polka dots unbuttoned to reveal his chest, emerged bathed in amber light to loud cheers. Equal parts jester, ringmaster, and desert pirate, he balanced sardonic humor with genuine warmth. Sauntering through the crowd, he immediately took hold of its attention.<\/p>\n
The concert was divided in three acts, each offering a completely different mood and set-up. For Act 1, songs were completely rearranged and new instruments were introduced, such as violins and a cello, to create a nearly reverential slow-burn feel. Opening with \u201cRunning Joke,\u201d which was melded into \u201cPaper Machete,\u201d QOTSA immediately established that this was a deep dive into the band\u2019s weirder, moodier side. \u201cKalopsia\u201d played like a fever dream, Homme\u2019s voice like pure melancholy. \u201cVillains of Circumstance\u201d followed, rich and aching.<\/p>\n
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Homme and Shuman<\/p>\n
What makes Queens of the Stone Age so compelling live is its ability to manipulate tension. \u201cSuture Up Your Future\u201d felt appropriately cutting, while \u201cI Never Came\u201d came like a\u00a0devastating emotional punch, the audience hanging on every word. All the while, Homme owned the scene, dancing around like a puppet without strings.<\/p>\n
Act 2 brought a proper orchestra of local musicians onto the stage, adding gravitas and depth to each performed song. This bold choice seriously augmented the quality of the entire set. It opened with an ambitious medley stitching together \u201cSomeone\u2019s in the Wolf,\u201d \u201cSong for the Deaf,\u201d and parts of \u201cStraight Jacket Fitting.\u201d It was an outr\u00e9 but interesting mashup \u2014 three songs collapsing into one hypnotic, disorienting suite. The overall effect made the place become like a tunnel somewhere beneath Paris. It was unsettling, theatrical, and completely mesmerizing.\u00a0The band has always excelled at controlled chaos, but here that chaos was meticulously crafted to maximum effect.<\/p>\n
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The set\u2019s quieter moments proved equally powerful. \u201cMosquito Song\u201d sounded more intimate; \u201cKeep Your Eyes Peeled\u201d rumbled with subterranean menace, while \u201cSpinning in Daffodils\u201d arrived as a sharp blow, with Homme holding a meat cleaver the entire performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The final act brought the band closer to its usual form. The only atypical element was, once again, the repertoire of lesser-known tunes such as “Hideaway” and the demanding “Fortress.” The former was performed as a duet with bass player Michael Shuman, who impressed fans with his powerful vocals. Homme sat down at a piano and delivered a beautiful version of the haunting \u201cThe Vampyre of Time and Memory,\u201d smoking a cigarette and sipping tequila from a tumbler. The moment felt like a scene taken straight from a film noir.\u00a0\u201cPeople are who they really are in the dark,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The set ended with \u201c\u2026 Like Clockwork,\u201d an appropriately piercing song to crown the evening. By the final notes, the applause wasn\u2019t explosive so much as near-worshipful. People seemed reluctant to break the spell. Homme returned to the stage and reminisced about his time spent in Seattle and how his life changed when he met Mark Lanegan. He was otherwise oblique. \u201cSeattle, I learned a lot from the musicians I met here,” he said. “I am not going to say who, because you will think I\u2019m name dropping \u2026 but I know all of them.\u201d He was then again joined by Shuman, with whom he performed an a cappella version of \u201cLong Slow Goodbye.\u201d<\/p>\n
The show was a reminder that Queens of the Stone Age remains one of rock\u2019s most adventurous live acts, even at a juncture in its career where it could comfortably rest on its laurels. It was a risky format that wound up feeling fitting for a band still pushing deeper into its own mythology. On this night in Seattle, it unearthed something extraordinary. It wasn’t purely a concert, but an experience \u2014 shadowy, hypnotic, and utterly unforgettable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josh Homme Earlier this week, rock outfit Queens of the Stone Age brought its new Catacombs Tour to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[17128,33160,2855,9,24,63,60751,122,124,123,2856,1842],"class_list":["post-216823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-concert-review","tag-live-review","tag-music-review","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-paramount-theatre","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-queens-of-the-stone-age","tag-seattle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}