Queens Of The Stone Age
Roundhouse, London
17/05/2011

It’s Josh Homme’s birthday, and he’s a happy man. With his steady hand at the helm, Queens Of The Stone Age have lost none of their potency, as this celebration of their 13-year-old eponymous debut album shows. Though the line up may have changed since that record was released, Homme has remained a man in control. Whether it’s his devil-may-care, cigarette-smoking, liquor-swilling swagger, or the casual yank with which he removes a hanging light fixture from his view, this is his show and he knows it. Cut from a certain ‘don’t-make-em-like-that-anymore’ rock star fabric, he knows he’s good and you’re just lucky to be here.

As they rip through the recently re-issued record with real menace and aplomb, QOTSA seem on the top of their game. From the opening violin-style riffage of ‘Regular John’, the anti-love letter of ‘If Only’, right through to the sozzled whimsy of ‘I Was A Teenage Hand Model’, their desert-toasted stoner rock has never sounded better. So much so that some gentle moshing from the crowd swiftly graduates into a furious stomp for ‘How To Handle A Rope’ and then a ballistic circle-pit for ‘Hispanic Impressions’. Despite the intensity of the pit, there’s a jubilant mood in the crowd, with long-term fans clearly bewitched by the sweet sound of so much early QOTSA material.

After playing the album in its entirety, Homme opens the floor to requests and blitzes through a greatest hits set, pausing between ‘Monsters in your Parasol’ and ‘Make It Wit Chu’ to take slugs of his bottle and raise his drink to crowd, before finishing with a victorious ‘Go with the Flow’.

Michael Bennett