Concert Review: Queens of the Stone Age at Bass Concert Hall

During its final sweep of the U.S. ‘Catacombs’ shows, alternative-metal act Queens of the Stone Age stopped by Bass Concert Hall on Nov. 19 with opener Paris Jackson, a folk-country singer native to Los Angeles for a night of orchestral mayhem. 

Written by Zachary Bolash

Photo courtesy of Sarah Waxberg

Alternative metal act Queens of the Stone Age (QotSA) has embarked on its world tour, ‘Catacombs,’ with opener Paris Jackson. The band stopped at Bass Concert Hall in Austin for an epic showcase of musical and lyrical virtuosity, a three-part show that blended a classic concert with oeuvres reminiscent of grandmaster musicians, all of which were coupled with an infectious charm from frontman Josh Homme. 

At 7:00 p.m., the lights at Bass Concert Hall turned off, and after a brief moment of darkness accompanied by echoed and far-reaching whoops, opener Paris Jackson appeared with an overhead spotlight pointed squarely at her. Jackson kick-started her set by informing audience members, who were awkwardly scurrying across aisles, that she “wore her best cowboy boots for them” before covering a “Betty Blackwell” song. 

Jackson continued her set, alternating between songs that blended melancholy with a traditionally folky sound of summer. The tracks Jackson performed were from an unreleased collaboration album, with her closing song on the night wrestling with the complexities of death. At the end of the show, Jackson reminded audience members to "tip their bartenders" before walking offstage. 

At a punctual 8:30 p.m., the Bass Hall went dark again, and sounds from the overhead speakers began to sensory-overwhelm listeners: a mix of cricket chirps and deep-maritime sounds that perfectly introduced the night’s booming, dissonant sounds. 

Queens of the Stone Age began the night with vocalist Josh Homme commandeering the stage; the frontman brandished a handheld lamp and evoked a mysterious energy against a backdrop of ethereal percussion. As the band introduced the first track, “Kalopsia,” Homme busted a jig and bantered with bandmates before segueing into the equally brooding and mischievous, “Suture Up Your Future."

"Suture Up Your Future" ignited the performance’s first half, where Homme left the stage to dance around the front rows of the orchestra section all the while maintaining his brassy timbre in belting lines such as, “I'm gonna suture up my future / I ain't jaded, I just hate it / See, I've been down too long.”

After "Suture Up Your Future" concluded, Bass Hall went black again, and the sensory overload orchestra of chirping crickets and deep-space sounds returned. This time, however, the intermission evoked a much more alien and cosmic feel backed by a barely audible narrator. When these sounds ceased, the curtain parted to reveal a grandiose orchestra cloaked in a crimson fog.

Photo courtesy of Steve Appleford

Immediately, tubas blasted as Queens of the Stone Age transitioned into the three-part epic arrangement of "Someone's in the Wolf / A Song for the Deaf / Straight Jacket Fitting." As blood-red spotlights illuminated the stage, Homme's seductive timbre warred with the orchestra's chthonian, chest-thumping sounds making one's heart rumble out of its socket as Homme pronounced vicious lyrics like, "Lie beside the ditch / This halo 'round my neck / Has torn our every stitch."

Homme then popped the seemingly impregnable bubble of the orchestra by saying, "Hello, Austin." Almost immediately, the lovably chaotic Homme began to ramble to the crowd. The  rambling musician switched between calling upon the technical engineers to "light up" the Hall so he could see the audience, and advising concertgoers to avoid sleeping with their sisters after affectionately calling a heckler his sister. After Homme's rant subsided, he introduced the next track of the night, "Mosquito Song."

This song diverged from the grandiose presentation of the previous three-track arrangement. It served as a return to form for the alt-metal collective, featuring Homme's signature bad-boy persona in all its glory. Homme hopped offstage, perused the crowd, and finished off a concertgoer's drink, all the while singing depressing lyrics like, "Mosquitos come and suck your blood / And leave you there all alone."

The collective finished out the second leg of their performance by performing classics like "Keep Your Eyes Peeled" and a jazzy, noisy cover of Them Crooked Vultures' "Daffodils.” After the cover subsided, the engineers blacked out the hall, with the alien narrator returning.

When the lights returned, the band greeted audience members with a nostalgic setup: the backing orchestra exited, and the five members of QotSA faced the audience. Before segueing into his next song, Homme remarked how blessed he was to be performing, calling himself a "spoiled little bitch." Homme introduced the next song, "Easy Street" by inviting the crowd “to clap, but not to get the clap.”

The performance broke from the orchestral and hard rock throughline of the night and opted for millennial rock with timbres similar to Fleet Foxes; the track breathed fresh air in a sonically dense night rife with loud instrumentation and cutting vocals, as Homme had fun bantering with his bandmates. The show quickly returned to its emotional gravitas with the proggy and chaotic closing track, "... Like Clockwork."

As Homme belted the poignant lines, "Everyone, it seems / Has somewhere to go / And the faster the world spins / The shorter the lights will glow," a white fog shrouded him and the band, almost as if the group was vanishing into the void. Fittingly, the band ended on an equally ominous note, stating, "One thing is clear / It's all downhill from here," before Homme graciously thanked the audience for coming out tonight.

Queens of the Stone Age offered a sonic buffet ranging from austere orchestral arrangements to signature alt-metal rock. Throughout the night, the collective’s theatrical and impregnable personalities warred, creating a show equally tied to their rocky roots and their new venture of dazzling newcomers. With an impressive, local-Austin orchestra and performance of the group’s greatest hits, Queens of the Stone Age put on a proverbial “damn good show.”