On the opening night of Queens of the Stone Age’s Catacombs Tour at the Chicago Theatre, you could hear crickets chirping…and that was by design.
The band’s set began with a decidedly slow burn: nearly five minutes of atmospheric buildup to accompany the smoky, hazy air in the venue, starting with crickets and transforming into a droning, murky orchestral soundscape. Every moment the audience was convinced the group would break the tension by stepping onstage, the hellish audio grew even more ominous before frontman Josh Homme finally, quietly emerged with a stool and handheld spotlight and crooned a medley of “Running Joke” and “Paper Machete,” commencing the first part of a dynamic three-act performance that never fell short of captivating.
Inevitably, there was a small portion of the audience whose appetite for rocking out outweighed their tolerance for an evening that was merely “captivating.” In that regard, the rollicking medieval arrangement of “Fortress” in the third act might have been their only refuge. But for everyone else, the theatrics and reinterpretations of mostly deep cuts wound up offering a different and compelling side of this typically heavy rock band. Homme even brought out “Spinning in Daffodils,” from Them Crooked Vultures’ 2009 self-titled sole release, a collaboration he recorded with Dave Grohl and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones (16 years have passed—where’s the follow-up?).
“Thank you for listening to us do something else,” Homme told the crowd towards the end of the night. “I mean this sincerely, we really do do funerals and weddings.”
To that end, the band encouraged the audience to dress up in their funereal best heading into the show, and a sizable portion took up the invite, attending in gothic formalwear. This was less of a rock show than an experience: imagine the band you might hear at a Ren Faire coffeehouse fronted by a melancholy Michael Bublé, add a small orchestra and some strategically placed 80s synths, and you have an idea of what the Catacombs tour entails.
In the early 90s, Homme made his mark as the guitarist for stoner rock icons Kyuss, and if you told his fans what his live act would be like in three decades, they’d think you had inhaled a little too much of what was being passed around at Kyuss shows. But there was still a trippy undertone throughout the night, and a wild medley of “Someone’s in the Wolf,” “Song for the Deaf,” and “Strait Jacket Fitting” was an especially tumultuous highlight. Pretty soon, Homme brought back the Rat Pack energy, brandishing a knife for good measure.
Aside from “Fortress,” even the show’s final half-hour resisted the urge to appease the rock contingent, instead emphasizing groove and folk elements, including the debut of an acoustic new song entitled “Easy Street,” which prioritized the string section’s handclaps over gritty riffs. I’m curious to see if a heavier version appears on a future Queens release.
The Catacombs Tour is not a traditional rock show, and it’s all the better for it. This brief 18-show tour does its best to replicate the feel of the band’s Alive in the Catacombs concert film, shot in the tunnels of the famous Parisian tombs, and while it may not have quite the same feel as it would surrounded by millions of skulls and bones, it’s incredibly effective in showcasing Homme’s dynamic voice and the powerful songwriting sometimes masked by loud, raucous instrumentation and production.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge opener Paris Jackson, whose half-hour solo set made good on her promise that she would “play some sad songs for you and we’re gonna have a good time.” As the offspring of the most famous entertainer of all time, her music career is inevitably under a microscope, but her entirely acoustic set proves she’s forging her own artistic identity (despite one track sounding a little too close to Bush’s “Glycerine”). Though she was clearly nervous, especially with multiple songs making their live debuts, her vulnerable and sincere performance rewarded anyone with the inevitable curiosity to show up before Homme and company took the stage.
