"Frontman Josh Homme has already faced down a cancer diagnosis and a recent separate health scare that forced him to cancel a portion of QOTSA's 2024 tour and undergo emergency surgery. Not to mention, the band has been rockin' for almost 30 years; both personally and artistically, Homme and the band are wrestling with real notions of mortality and the decaying, uncaring nature of time."
"Earlier this year, such themes manifested in their concert film/live EP Alive in the Catacombs, which saw Queens of the Stone Age perform an intimate live set deep in the Parisian Catacombs (read a first-hand account of that experience in our cover story with Homme). Now, the usually hard-rocking act has translated those acoustic, macabre vibes into a stage show, one that transforms their ear-splitting rippers into a smoky theater production of dark folk and desert rock."
"From a fan's perspective, QOTSA's "Catacombs" production starts well before any of the band members step onto the stage. The theater setting as well as the band encouraging audience members to show up dressed in their finest sets a very specific tone. Entering the Chicago Theatre, the place was already filled with fog, as if we were all about to take part in some ritual of resurrection."
"After Paris Jackson's opening set, the lights dimmed and a drone track played through the mains to reset the mood. After about five minutes of tension building (respect for holding out for so long), Homme slowly emerged from the audience carrying a stool. He launched into the opening cut, "Running Joke / Paper Machete," alone with a microphone in one hand and the sole source of light in the other."
Queens of the Stone Age opened the Catacombs Tour at the Chicago Theatre, centering the show on time, death, and reinvention. Frontman Josh Homme faced a cancer diagnosis and a later health scare that forced tour cancellations and emergency surgery. Earlier this year the band recorded Alive in the Catacombs, an intimate concert film/live EP shot deep in the Parisian Catacombs. The band adapted those acoustic, macabre tones into a theatrical stage production that transforms their loud rock songs into smoky dark folk and desert rock. The theater's fog, encouragement to dress formally, and Homme's solitary, lit-only entrance fostered a ritualistic, resurrection-like mood.
Read at Consequence
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