The Struts rolled into Place Bell with excellent response and ride quality. Smelling of leather, textiles, aluminium and carbon fibre. Once acceleration hit 126 bpm they never looked back.
Like a slightly more serious “The Darkness”. This band makes you remember a classic rock sound that was gone 30 years ago but will have its glorious days in the spotlight again, reminding you to feel joy and pump your fists and shake your hips. Luke Spiller “Roth’ed” and “Mercury’ed” and “Jagger’ed” and “Rose’ed” and “Joe Elliott’ed” and even “Brian Johnson’ed” all over the stage. His vocals are operatic and edgy and charismatic. Guitar, bass and drums play tightly and seem happy to reflect Spiller’s energy rather than exist on their own. Good bandmates, that’s how you get ahead.
Every song is a rager. Every song has the same exact speed. Every song rocked me to my core and warmed my frozen heart. I would love to see them headline so we could hear something mid-tempo. Speaking of mid “tempo”, does anyone appreciate that I slobbered all over the second definition of what a strut is instead of the obvious choice?
Re: intermission. The guys were doing a lot of disingenuous hand “washing” in the bathroom, but then I guess if you’re willing to rest your open-topped cup of rum and coke on the urinal while you make water, then your rules are different.
The headliners – Queens of the Stone Age
Little red LEDs on the gear popping up when the house lights go down are the coolest thing ever. The sound system plays “Smile” by Peggy Lee as the men walk out in the scientifically perfect amount of fog.
The combination of wet cigarette smoker and pregame shotgunning smells and the recent reminder that humans are at base level complex and gross- when “No One Knows” kicks off, dear reader, let me tell you, I have never wanted to get in a fight more in my life. Whatever you do, don’t tell anyone – Queens of the Stone Age has the worst-smelling fans in rock n roll. Not everyone, but each crowd is a unique entity and the April 13 2024 QOTSA ft the Struts crowd is pungent. (Lovely people even though, just an off night, I’m certain).
The Setlist is packed with quality. Jagged riffs and dissonant detuned solos (dissonant detuned synths, bass vocals, everything but the drums actually were dissonant and detuned) The band gloriously dancing a tightrope between, on the one side, the certain death of a 100foot fall into gashy pop hooks and the other side a bendy, humming heat wave of Halloween metal. The metal wins, but the hooks are so sharp that even disaffected goateed flannel bros sing the lines back to Homme without embarrassment. Absorbing their full power.
Testosterone is good, but as Homme reminds us, the mosh pit is for fun, but the next song, “Smooth Sailing”, “is for the ladies. Don’t f with the ladies because we can’t f without ‘em”.
Everyone gets the occasional rest except the drummer. There is no click track; there are just enough floor monitors. This is a dirty rock show for dirty people, people who wish they were dirty, or reviewers documenting filth for posterity. I am happy as a pig here.
The live sound mix is amazing at Place Bell tonight; every Ray Gun, Doppler, Phaser, Vortex or Foghorn effect was perfectly realized sonically. The proper amount of grit but with the intention of every instrument.
Why is Homme asking what we want to hear him play? This is not normal, but it feels exciting. The choose your own adventure of songs injects a little chaos, you don’t see this at every show. And it fits perfectly in the grand scheme and vibe of the show.
The light show is simple but effective, at the beginning of many songs there would be an intentionally chosen color and it would make me anticipate what the song would be.
“Middle-aged man desert dancing wide-hipped cactus” was a note I made and I can’t remember exactly why but I’ll tell you this, the whole show every single man that moved at all did dance like this. “Middle-aged man desert dancing wide-hipped cactus” sounds like what you would put into a prompt for lyrics to an AI Queens of the Stone Age song. I’ll have to try that. Still on the dancing front, the women in the audience progressively get freer as the night goes on; a groove settles in that’s intoxicating. Whereas the men dance in a way, let’s see if I can describe… Their arms are folded as if they are at a junior high swim meet and approving of their daughters’ form but worried the girl in the next lane will overtake her if she keeps favouring her right. You get the picture. Swimming Dad moves. “Middle-aged man desert dancing wide-hipped cactus.” It’s a muddy analogy at best, but what do you want from me, good writing or accurate writing?
During “Make It Wit Chu” Homme stops the song and declares a search party for “friction”. He eventually singles out an interesting looking man with a beard and dedicates the next thing they will do for him, that’s an honor! Homme then has a mild panic, realizing he doesn’t know what he’s going to do. He figures it out big time! They re-enter the song, and he does a solo with “Crazy Talk” by Chilliwack and then “Miss You” by the Rolling Stones. Inspired by friction, – You know I don’t think QOTSA would have much access to Chilliwack down in the south western states… someone should @ them about Crazy Talk, that would be a crazy song for them to cover!
After coming back for the encore, I feel like the crowd, as an entity, just boiled down to one person, is like the music: smelly, smearing, snarling, never-ending, capable of anything.
Queens of the Stone Age left us on a prolonged Bb synth note. But I’ll be honest: After the encore, I was so overwhelmed by the experience that I was done, couldn’t dance anymore, and just wanted to go home. The band was amazing, 10/10 (I stayed, I did not go). The crowd was a 7/10 for energy and vibe, but guys…. deodorant, hand washing, a shower every once in a while… hygiene 4/10…
6/10 would go again, but with ear and nose plugs. (numbers are meaningless, Queens of the Stone Age rule.)
Review – Mike Rogers
Photos – Eric Brisson
