![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/QOTSA-2.png\")
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland, OR4\/27\/2026<\/p>\n
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland, OR
4\/27\/2026<\/p>\n
There\u2019s an alternate reality where Queens of the Stone Age became one of those bands that gets used as a punchline. Their largely straightforward approach to capital-R Rock and the grunge-era voice of Josh Homme are the kinds of things that keep bands relegated to a certain era and genre, like Korn or Limp Bizkit. This is the universe in which Nine Inch Nails is still discussed in the same breath as KMFDM or Ministry \u2014 devoted to the form, but only interesting if you like that form. Somehow, though, QOTSA (and NIN) escaped that fate, continuing to grow and innovate while never straying too far from home base. Homme and his Stone Age brethren are pure talents, and even though 2024\u2019s In Times New Roman\u2026 felt like it was just another slick-ass rock record, it was also another in a line of records that showed a rich, virtuosic understanding of what makes that form tick.<\/p>\n
In 2024, Queens of the Stone Age broke their mold, and in doing so, sent the band on a detour worth touring behind \u2014 a detour that delivered them to Portland for a remarkable Monday evening at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Two years earlier, the band descended below Paris, doing a short, gorgeous concert film called Alive in the Catacombs, stripping back a handful of songs and giving them each loose, hypnotic staging while surrounded by the remains of six million Parisians. Below the surface, Homme was closer to joining them than rejoining the living above; he performed the concert in agony, flying to get emergency medical treatment that left him bedridden for seven months. In hindsight, Alive in the Catacombs hits like a ton of bricks as you watch Homme breeze through his fellow musicians while singing, \u201cI\u2019m gon\u2019 suture up my future\u201d like a ghost haunting the performance space. It also feels like an unexpected triumph, making it abundantly clear that QOTSA are one of the more underrated acts of the era.<\/p>\n
The band\u2019s current tour, dubbed the Catacombs Tour, asks a very deliberate question: \u201cWhat if the Queens finished playing \u2018I Never Came\u2019 and, instead of calling it a day, kept the spirit going for another hour and a half?\u201d It also presents Homme with a much-deserved victory lap, having cheated death to come back healthy and happy. He\u2019s come a long way, and he looks and sounds fantastic, his grunge-worn voice sounding practically angelic in the unmatched acoustic of the Schnitz. The Catacombs Tour is enjoyable without the context; his voice had already shown it was aging like a fine wine when \u2026Like Clockwork came out, but with the context, every song shimmers with the energy of a musician who knows things could have easily gone the other way.<\/p>\n
Here at the Schnitz, he spent the bulk of the show without his guitar, wandering the stage, singing among his fellow musicians. Even better, he embraced his inner Nick Cave, wandering the aisles, climbing on chairs and dancing with himself. At one point, he did a medley of \u201cSomeone\u2019s in the Wolf,\u201d \u201cA Song for the Deaf\u201d and \u201cStraight Jacket Fitting\u201d while brandishing a meat cleaver still sharp enough that he was able to embed a corner of the blade in the stage floor. Just a song later, he spotted Yuri, a white Labrador service dog, and gave into the wicked temptation to pet it. He drank red wine and smoked a cigarette. He probably shouldn\u2019t have done a lot of these things, but when you\u2019ve been reminded of the power of living, you live.<\/p>\n
None of it would have worked if these reworked versions didn\u2019t sound incredible. The entirety of QOTSA is outstanding, but we\u2019d be remiss not to draw attention to the ace in the hole, the string\/horn section made up of local musicians that helped augment the entire show. At the beginning of the show, the strings were subtle, but as the curtain pulled back and the full band was revealed, their purpose as a group dedicated to transforming QOTSA\u2019s music became clear. This is why we were here at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, a pristine venue designed to sound immaculate no matter where you were sitting. Otherwise, the high dramatics and thoughtful arrangements of \u201cSomeone\u2019s in the Wolf,\u201d \u201cKeep Your Eyes Peeled\u201d and \u201cAuto Pilot\u201d (which was delivered by a slinking, leather-clad Michael Shuman, stalking the stage menacingly) wouldn\u2019t really be appreciated. Somewhere in the venue, in the back of the balcony, someone got a shaky iPhone video of the entire set, and even that recording probably sounds incredible.<\/p>\n
If Queens of the Stone Age abandoned their devotion to capital-R Rock and took a long detour into opulent, theatrically minded, orchestral and rock-flavored compositions, it would be difficult not to root for them, especially if it harnessed the same vital spirit as this performance. It was the kind of show that makes you feel hyperbolic when you talk about how good it is. Then you actually go and find some shaky iPhone recording<\/a> and discover that it really does sound incredible, and it makes you feel crazy \u2014 and like writing the band a letter demanding a live album from this tour. There\u2019s an alternate reality in which Queens of the Stone Age, like Nine Inch Nails, are one of the most beloved acts of the era, capable of selling out arenas without blinking. The Catacombs Tour makes it clear that we could live in that reality if QOTSA wanted to will it into existence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland, OR4\/27\/2026 There\u2019s an alternate reality where Queens of the Stone Age became one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123,2856],"class_list":["post-217542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-queens-of-the-stone-age"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217542","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=217542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}