Queens of the Stone Age
3Arena
★★★★☆
“Tonight’s the last night of this tour, and I could think of no better f**king place in the world to be.” Josh Homme was pleased to be back in Dublin, six years after Queens of the Stone Age’s last appearance at the 3Arena.
It’s been a turbulent few years for the frontman in the meantime. He apologised after a female photographer said he kicked her in the head during a gig before entering rehab for drug and alcohol abuse. His marriage to former Distillers singer Brody Dalle broke down. Earlier this year he revealed that he had surgery to treat cancer, from which he now has the “all clear”.
All this fed into the Queens’ new album In Times New Roman, which got an airing in front of a sold-out crowd on Wednesday night. After strong support from Australian punk rockers The Chats and trio deep tan, Queens of the Stone Age came out to Peggy Lee’s Smile “though your heart is aching”.
Opening with their biggest hit No One Knows sent a statement and its trademark bass solo teed up a powerhouse performance. A varied set took us all the way back to Lost Art of Keeping a Secret through to Emotion Sickness and Paper Machete off the new album while rarely have a few shakes of a maraca been greeted so wildly as for the intro to My God is the Sun.
Smoking on stage, Homme was in a playful mood, convincing someone holding up a stuffed toy cat to throw it to him so he could pop it up on an amp and feed it beer. He said with “the world being so f**king rough” he wanted something good to hold on to urging the crowd to dance to the groove of I Have a Tail and the pure bop of The Way You Used to Do.
Burn the Witch got an airing after a crowd vote while a shout for Sick, Sick, Sick seemed to initially be turned down with the line “that sounds like something you should take care of with your own doctor” before its brutal distorted riffs made an appearance as the heat was cranked up later in the gig. The crowd were in full voice for the sexy Make it Wit Chu while Little Sister sent the place into delirium.
There were a few poignant tributes with Homme calling for “beautiful thoughts” to be sent to “f**king poet” Shane MacGowan, who was discharged from hospital this week after a stay lasting months. The encore was dedicated to singer Mark Lanegan, who was in the band when they played Slane in 2003, and died at his home in Killarney last year: “We think about him every day.”
The throbbing Go With the Flow hyped the crowd up for the traditional Queens finale Song for the Dead, an absolute bone crusher that sparked bedlam, had shoes flying into the air in the mosh pits up front and sent everyone home feeling alive.
