The Queens of the Stone Age\u2019s Catacombs Tour is a study in reinvention \u2013 a darkly theatrical journey that blurs the line between concert and ceremony. The tour supports the band\u2019s live album and film, Alive in the Catacombs (2025), recorded deep within the Paris catacombs with special permission from the city. Surrounded by the skeletal remains of millions from the 18th century, the band reworked songs from across their catalog, creating an eerie, reverent portrait of rock music in its rawest form. At New York\u2019s beautiful Beacon Theatre on Friday night, the atmosphere mirrored that haunting premise.<\/p>\n
Before QOTSA took the stage, Paris Jackson, daughter of Michael Jackson and Debbie Rowe, opened with an acoustic solo set that was strikingly vulnerable and unpretentious. \u201cComplete,\u201d she explained, was written about a breakup she was still processing. Between songs, she spoke casually with the crowd about playing Boston Calling<\/a> (\u201cI like Boston,\u201d she said, earning good-natured boos from the New Yorkers) and a recent sold-out show at Mercury Lounge that turned out to be \u201cscalped\u201d by bots. \u201cNew York, do better,\u201d she teased, before adding with mock seriousness after a few more songs, \u201cYou guys depressed yet?\u201d Her performance \u2013 melancholy, melodic and deeply human \u2013 won over a crowd who hadn\u2019t expected to be moved.<\/p>\n When the lights dimmed for QOTSA, the room fell silent. The first act began in total darkness with a slow, atmospheric rise into \u201cRunning Joke.\u201d Josh Homme appeared in the blue light, swinging a warm light as he sang. The band and a string trio joined in. The sequence of five songs \u2013 all drawn from Alive in the Catacombs \u2013 transformed the ornate Beacon into a shadowy, subterranean space pulsing with ambient sound and tension.<\/p>\n The second act was bathed in crimson light. Backed by a horn section, the band tore through a medley of \u201cSomeone\u2019s in the Wolf,\u201d \u201cA Song for the Deaf,\u201d and \u201cStraight Jacket Fitting,\u201d bridging decades of material with seamless force The set then slipped into \u201cMosquito Song,\u201d the hidden track from Songs for the Deaf (2002), and closed with \u201cSpinning in Daffodils,\u201d Homme\u2019s 2009 collaboration with John Paul Jones and Dave Grohl. The transitions felt cinematic \u2013 one long, feverish arc rather than a collection of songs.<\/p>\n For the final act, the lights softened, revealing a more reflective tone. Drawing from material spanning 2000 to 2017 and debuting a new track, \u201cEasy Street,\u201d the band continued to sidestep many of their biggest hits in favor of mood and experience. \u201cSome of you have been with us many years,\u201d Homme told the crowd. \u201cThank you for allowing us to always be ourselves.\u201d The audience responded with a long, heartfelt roar.<\/p>\n The encore was a quiet exhale: Homme and bassist Mike Shuman returned alone to perform \u201cLong Slow Goodbye\u201d from Lullabies to Paralyze (2005) a capella as the crowd clapped and sang along. From the catacombs of Paris to the heart of Manhattan, the performance closed with communion \u2013 a quiet testament to the strange beauty of the darkness.<\/p>\n Queens of the Stone Age<\/a> continues their tour in Europe before returning to the U.S. in November. Paris Jackson<\/a> concludes her current tour at the end of November.<\/p>\n Paris Jackson Setlist: Maker, Happiest Day of My Life, Complete, Zombies in Life, Gaslight, Drain, Something, My Buckling Knees.<\/p>\n Queens of the Stone Age Setlist: Act 1 (Alive in the Catacombs \u2013 Running Joke \/ Paper Machete, Kalopsia, Villains of Circumstance, Suture Up Your Future, I Never Came. Act 2 \u2013 Someone\u2019s in the Wolf \/ A Song for the Deaf \/ Straight Jacket Fitting, Mosquito Song, Keep Your Eyes Peeled, Spinning in Daffodils. Act 3 \u2013 \u201cYou Got a Killer Scene There, Man..\u201d, Hideaway, The Vampyre of Time and Memory, Auto Pilot, Easy Street, Fortress, \u2026Like Clockwork. Encore \u2013 Long Slow Goodbye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Queens of the Stone Age\u2019s Catacombs Tour is a study in reinvention \u2013 a darkly theatrical journey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[527,9,24,63,528,529,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-beacon","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-nyc","12":"tag-parisjackson","13":"tag-qotsa","14":"tag-queens","15":"tag-queens-headlines","16":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468","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=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}