{"id":37675,"date":"2025-11-12T22:21:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T22:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/37675\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T22:21:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T22:21:28","slug":"queens-of-the-stone-age-reinvent-themselves-brilliantly-at-the-dolby-theatre-daily-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/37675\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens of the Stone Age reinvent themselves brilliantly at the Dolby Theatre \u2013 Daily News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late in Queens of the Stone Age<\/a>\u2018s strange and wonderful night in Hollywood on Tuesday, singer Josh Homme<\/a> paused to state the obvious.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it\u2019s all a bit strange and unusual, and a little terrifying,\u201d Homme said of a performance that deconstructed the band\u2019s catalog to reinvent them in unprecedented new arrangements. \u201cHasn\u2019t been an easy time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, tough (bleep), Larry, life is scary,\u201d he continued to laughter from the sold-out Dolby Theatre. \u201cThat\u2019s the point.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s OK to make strange requests of each other. We\u2019re making a strange request of you tonight, and we\u2019re asking a lot of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Queens<\/p>\n

Queens of the Stone Age perform at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. This was the band\u2019s first-ever acoustic tour, inspired by a 2024 EP for which the band recorded inside the Paris Catacombs. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Queens<\/p>\n

Queens of the Stone Age perform at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. This was the band\u2019s first-ever acoustic tour, inspired by a 2024 EP for which the band recorded inside the Paris Catacombs. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Queens<\/p>\n

Queens of the Stone Age perform at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. This was the band\u2019s first-ever acoustic tour, inspired by a 2024 EP for which the band recorded inside the Paris Catacombs. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Queens<\/p>\n

Queens of the Stone Age perform at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. This was the band\u2019s first-ever acoustic tour, inspired by a 2024 EP for which the band recorded inside the Paris Catacombs. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Queens<\/p>\n

Queens of the Stone Age perform at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. This was the band\u2019s first-ever acoustic tour, inspired by a 2024 EP for which the band recorded inside the Paris Catacombs. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Queens<\/p>\n

Queens of the Stone Age perform at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. This was the band\u2019s first-ever acoustic tour, inspired by a 2024 EP for which the band recorded inside the Paris Catacombs. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Queens<\/p>\n

Queens of the Stone Age perform at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. This was the band\u2019s first-ever acoustic tour, inspired by a 2024 EP for which the band recorded inside the Paris Catacombs. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Paris<\/p>\n

Paris Jackson performs at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. Jackson was the opening act for Queens of the Stone Age. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Queens<\/p>\n

Queens of the Stone Age perform at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. This was the band\u2019s first-ever acoustic tour, inspired by a 2024 EP for which the band recorded inside the Paris Catacombs. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Paris<\/p>\n

Paris Jackson performs at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. Jackson was the opening act for Queens of the Stone Age. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Paris<\/p>\n

Paris Jackson performs at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. Jackson was the opening act for Queens of the Stone Age. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Paris<\/p>\n

Paris Jackson performs at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. Jackson was the opening act for Queens of the Stone Age. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Queens<\/p>\n

Queens of the Stone Age perform at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. This was the band\u2019s first-ever acoustic tour, inspired by a 2024 EP for which the band recorded inside the Paris Catacombs. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Paris<\/p>\n

Paris Jackson performs at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. Jackson was the opening act for Queens of the Stone Age. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Paris<\/p>\n

Paris Jackson performs at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. Jackson was the opening act for Queens of the Stone Age. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Queens<\/p>\n

Queens of the Stone Age perform at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. This was the band\u2019s first-ever acoustic tour, inspired by a 2024 EP for which the band recorded inside the Paris Catacombs. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Paris<\/p>\n

Paris Jackson performs at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. Jackson was the opening act for Queens of the Stone Age. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Queens<\/p>\n

Queens of the Stone Age perform at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. This was the band\u2019s first-ever acoustic tour, inspired by a 2024 EP for which the band recorded inside the Paris Catacombs. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 18<\/p>\n

Queens of the Stone Age perform at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. This was the band\u2019s first-ever acoustic tour, inspired by a 2024 EP for which the band recorded inside the Paris Catacombs. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

And how could anyone complain about that, really, given a performance in which Queens set aside their usual hard-rocking ways for much of the night to do something equally beautiful yet entirely different, too?<\/p>\n

The Catacombs Tour was inspired by this unexpected fact: On July 8, 2024, Queens of the Stone Age<\/a> became the first musical act to perform inside the Catacombs of Paris, legally, at least. \u201cAlive in the Catacombs,\u201d a concert film and EP, arrived earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Inspired by that unusual performance amid the ancient stacks of skulls and bones, Queens of the Stone Age<\/a> designed its tour around the sounds they heard there: Half the night was mostly acoustic, while the violins and cello they added for the Catacombs performance are now supplemented by a four-piece brass section.<\/p>\n

So sure, it\u2019s a strange request, but for 17 songs over two hours on Tuesday, it was embraced like old friends, the band and their fans, greeting each other with a hug.<\/p>\n

A few minutes of ambient sound \u2013 crickets, birdsong, the groaning of industrial machinery, and finally the slow tolling of a church bell \u2013 led to the opening mashup of \u201cRunning Joke\u201d and \u201cPaper Machete,\u201d Homme singing the opening lines a cappella before members of the band stepped one by one from behind the stage curtain to join in.<\/p>\n

Act I of four delivered the five songs of \u201cAlive in the Catacombs\u201d in order, each of them adding different textures of sound to a stage lit in soft blue spotlights \u2013 and the ever-moving glare of the caged lightbulb at the end of the long utility light cord Homme carried.<\/p>\n

\u201cKalopsia\u201d opened with xylophone plinks accompanied by the plucked strings of two violins and a cello. A somber \u201cVillains of Circumstance\u201d arrived like a sorrowful song in the saddest cafe in Paris.<\/p>\n

The strings slipped away as fans cheered the opening of \u201cSuture Up Your Future,\u201d which rocked harder while still primarily acoustic. \u201cI Never Came\u201d closed out the Catacombs act. [The Criterion Channel is the streaming home of the short film of that performance if you\u2019re interested.]\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Act II shifted into a bigger sound as the stage curtain rose to reveal a chamber orchestra with four musicians on strings, four more on brass \u2013 \u201cbows and blows,\u201d as Homme would later thank them during introductions.<\/p>\n

Homme roamed into the seats and aisles of the front section of the theater often, sometimes with a microphone in one hand, a butcher\u2019s meat cleaver in the other, for some unspoken reason. Just about when you were sure it was a prop \u2013 he dropped it while flipping it in the air several times, and waved it nervously close to a fan or two \u2013 he flung it at the stage where it stuck into the floor with a solid thunk.<\/p>\n

A medley of \u201cSomeone\u2019s in the Wolf \/ A Song for the Deaf \/ Straight Jacket Fitting\u201d opened this part of the show, running perhaps 15 minutes long. The glorious racket of violins over tuba and trombone summoned ghosts of a German expressionist cabaret, the stage drenched in the glow of red lights.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny dressing up,\u201d Homme said at its close, acknowledging the band\u2019s request that fans come dressed for the kinds of highbrow productions the smaller theaters on this tour typically present. \u201cWhy do we gotta dress up? I\u2019ll tell you why. It\u2019s a way of saying I love you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, a moment later, perhaps considering the sharp maroon suit he was wearing, he added this: \u201cYou don\u2019t have to say \u2018I love you.\u2019 Sometimes I just have nice pants on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The set often dipped deep into Queens of the Stone Age<\/a>\u2018s back catalogue. Given the need to strip the songs for parts to be divvied up between the unusual mix of 14 musicians on stage, it surely eliminated some of the band\u2019s bigger hits.<\/p>\n

So fans got tunes that in many cases hadn\u2019t been played live for a decade or more, or in some cases hardly ever. \u201cMosquito Song,\u201d for instance, had only been played six times before this tour. \u201cSpinning in Daffodils,\u201d a cover of a song by Them Crooked Vultures<\/a>,\u201d a side project of Homme\u2019s with Foo Fighter Dave Grohl and Led Zeppelin\u2019s John Paul Jones, showed up in a Queens set for the first time on the tour.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018You Got a Killer Scene There, Man \u2026\u2019,\u201d which opened Act III, had only been played a handful of times before this fall. \u201cHideaway\u201d had only been done once.<\/p>\n

The third act featured much more of the expected sound of the band \u2013 guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen switched to an electric instrument here, as did bassist Michael Shuman, while drummer Jon Theodore and keyboardist Dean Fertita pounded harder and played louder.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Vampyre of Time and Memory\u201d saw Homme singing its lovely melody while accompanying himself on piano. \u201cAuto Pilot\u201d gave Shuman a chance to sing lead vocals before Homme joined in on harmonies.<\/p>\n

Near the end of the main set, a strong new song, \u201cEasy Street,\u201d which the band premiered live on this tour, arrived. It turned down the volume a little bit to let the melody and handclaps of the entire band shine through.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 Like Clockwork\u201d closed the final act with Homme singing a sweet falsetto over the strings and horns before Van Leeuwen and Fertita joined in, and then, the volume rising louder and louder, Theodore and Shuman.<\/p>\n

The shows on this tour have all ended with \u201cLong Slow Goodbye,\u201d which at the Dolby opened with Homme riffing with the crowd on life and death and the ever-present closeness of friends and loved ones on the other side of the eternal veil. Eventually, he started to sing, unaccompanied, urging the audience to join him as he did.<\/p>\n

\u201cI close my eyes, I just can\u2019t sleep,\u201d he sang, now with Shuman adding harmonies. \u201cWhere have you gone again, my sweet?<\/p>\n

\u201cOn a long slow goodbye. On a long slow goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paris Jackson<\/a>, yes, the late Michael Jackson<\/a>\u2018s daughter, opened the show with a set of new singer-songwriter tunes for which she accompanied herself solo on acoustic guitar. It\u2019s a new sound, her old rock persona shed somewhere in the past.<\/p>\n

The songs were appealing, her banter between them quite funny. An album she\u2019s been working on with songwriter-producer Linda Perry is set for release next year, she noted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Late in Queens of the Stone Age\u2018s strange and wonderful night in Hollywood on Tuesday, singer Josh Homme…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[5362,22047,9,24,63,122,124,123,904],"class_list":["post-37675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-concerts","tag-music-concerts","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37675","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=37675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}