With the success of their 4 albums, and their seemingly endless touring, Queens of the Stone Age(QOTSA) redefined the way people look at alternative music today. With their debut in 1998, they swept fans across the world with the hits like Regular John and Mexicola. Then they came out with the extremely successful Rated R, which began theadolescence period of the musicians lives. After the touring and trials every band goes through, they began their embark to adulthood with the voted one of the best albums of 2002, Songs For The Deaf. Songs like Go With the Flow that lured in more younger listeners into the QOTSA realm. After the touring, for numerous reasons, Josh Homme had to fire bassist and long time friend Nick Oliveri. Very sad moment for all the QOTSA fans. Nick was an idol to many. But with this event seemingly pushed out of Joshs mind, Troy Van Leeuwen, Joey Castillo, and many other artists collaborated to unravel the 2005 release Lullabies to Paralyze. My favorite album. This release lost old fans because of the absence of Nick Oliveri, and the new sound of the band. But has gained many other fans with hits like Little Sister, In My Head, and Burn the Witch. The concept of their new/first live DVD/CD is as follows. QOTSA were planning to hit London many times. 5 times they had failed to reach their goal. One incident was when Josh started coughing up blood, and needed immediate medical attention. After all these failed attempts they decided to film the show at Brixton Academy and Koko, the 2 places were they had failed to reach for months making it their first DVD/CD. The DVD has QOTSA performing 20 songs, but they skimmed it down to 14 on the CD, and they are probably the highlights they preformed that night.
CD Highlights:Go With The Flow really begins the CD in a nice way. It sets the tone for the rest of the CD. The leads are as cool as usual, and the rhythm of the piano and the guitar makes you want to cruise in a car. Joshs vocals and the backup vocals are calm but makes you want to sing and tap along with the drum beats. As I said this song sets the tone for the rest of the CD, the enjoyable flow of energy from the song makes you want to listen to more. A great start to the CD.
This is followed by the first song off their first CD, Regular John. Starts off with a faint guitar lead, then catchy guitar strumming. Pretty awesome guitar work through the whole song. This song is one of those songs that sound better live. There are also a lot of things different from the live version and the original. The guitars are more catchier, Joshs and Troys vocals and paralyzing yet calming, and it has a different layout and a bridge were every instrument stops for about 30 seconds except the 2 guitars which are repeating the main lead. Very interesting song.
Little Sister is frowned on by many, but I think its very unique because QOTSA have no other song that sounds like it. Its begins with no cowbell if you skip to the track, which I think sounds very different and better for some reason, but I still love cowbell. The solos are pretty sketchy live. The bass is a highlight of the song, its very unique and sounds really different and more complex and challanging to play compared to older QOTSA songs. And the outro solo is also very awesome and fast as usual.
You Can’t Quit Me, Baby is from the minute the guitars start you can tell it is really a guitar song. Its is really fun to listen to if your doing something like work around the house or if you play along too on guitar and bass, which I’ve tried and its really fun if you try to figure out and play with the leads. Joshs vocals are really high/happy here, and the solos are estatic. Although the song can get a bit repetitive, 9 minutes based on one guitar riff lol. But in the end it shows you how creative QOTSA really are with their instruments.
I Wanna Make it Wit Chu is also really calming, ironic too because its basically about sex. The guitar and piano rhythm makes you want to swing back and forth. The chorus sounds very "cool" with the band (Alaine, Troy, Josh, Natasha) singing in harmony the vocals. The guitar leads are also really hype and clean.
Burn the Witch sounds really different live, its faster and more punkier. Makes you want to move up and down. Besides that it sounds the same as on the album, dark lyrics, creative lap steel, and sloppy solo. Very catchy song. Although i find it to be getting quite boring these days...
Next is the best song on the CD, in fact the best song ever. Song for the Dead (it says song for the deaf on the album, weird huh)Anyway sweet harmonics in the intro. This is a drum based song, with the most creative and long/fast drum beats in QOTSA history.Joshs wocals are really dark and rough. But they cant be matched with Mark Lanegans tingling vocals. Some new guitar work in this song too which sounds really interesting. This is then followed by the harmonics again and then the coolest part is the retarded drum solo at the ecd, its so crazy it blew my mind! Then it finishs with and huge blow and Joey praticly dies from playing so much. This is the best song QOTSA have put out in their whole career.(if I may say so) Definitely a 5/5, 100%, classic song. Biggest highlight of the CD.
No One Knows is also really good. Begins with the classic guitar riffs. Then the rough chorus, and then a verse, then a yummy new sounding solo. The only thing that really makes this song stand out is the solo. Its sounds like a new song itself. I cant get it out of my head. It goes on for a minute or so. Then finishes off with the original solo and then the outro bit. This song really makes you want to play guitar for hours.A inspiring song for many young artists,including me.
The final song, Long Slow Goodbye begins with Alaine Johannes playing guitar with his four fingers, one by one strumming the strings. I never really noticed the talent in this guy. After this it begins with the chords that the whole song revolves around. A really fitting song for the close of this CD.
Most of the songs on this CD are awesome. But the ones I reviewed are ones you all should listen too, allll day;)
This CD is a definite own for all you QOTSA fans, even if you like/hate the old, or like/hate the new. It has the old for fans who like the old suff, and the new for fans of the newer stuff, and the juice for all you SFTD fanatics. And appearances/flashbacks of Nick Oliveri, Mark Lanegan, Dave Grohl, and many more bonus features. I love this DVD/CD, and hopefully you guys will too. QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE ARE F***ING GODS.
SCALLAHAN06
