QOTSA at The Fillmore in San Francisco Saturday...
(In case you haven't noticed, I've been transitioning to a hybrid model of blogging: I'll post some journal-like posts and some pundit-style posts at my discretion.)
I'm excited. Even in a culturally-rich area like the Bay Area, rarely am I ever as excited about an upcoming musical performance than I am right now. To whom am I referring to? Queens of the Stone Age.
QOTSA play a vein of rock that is highly influenced by the desert rock/stoner rock strain pioneered by bands like Kyuss and Fu Manchu. I've been listening to this stuff for about ten years. Here's a snippet for you to sample ("First it Giveth" from QOTSA's Songs for the Deaf):
Due to copyright reasons, this snippet of this song is posted for educational and critical purposes and it will only remain up for a few days (it's not the whole song and it's not at as high of a bitrate as the original).
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Josh Homme, the only member of QOTSA that seems to have remained constant throughout their 4-album tenure, is an amazing guitarist, songwriter and singer. Unfortunately, Homme has some sort of ailment that prevents him from singing much, ho hum. He has come a long way, and made a ton of friends along the way... like the Eagles of Death Metal (who are nothing like Death Metal in case you were wondering, they're just being clever) and ex-Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. Interestingly enough, M and I saw QOTSA play Slim's a few years back and were suprised to see Dave Grohl playing amazing drums for them!
Anyway, I do feel a bit guilty that I had to buy these tickets off of eBay... at about twice their face value. But it will be good to see a show that I know will be good rather than the regular San Francisco crap shoot... where any band can really suck given the lacksidaisical attitude of Bay Area audiences that refuse to dance or show any emotion for fear of seeming "uncool".