The European leg of their ‘The End Is Nero’ tour kicked off Saturday night in Amsterdam and comes just months after the release of their eighth studio album ‘In Times New Roman…’. The original line-up was formed out of the ashes of Kyuss in 1996 in Seattle by vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme, who has remained the only constant member of the group through an ever-changing line-up. Yet despite this, there was a strong musical connection pulsing through the band on stage that spanned through their extensive catalogue.
Support acts deep tan and The Chats warmed the 6,500-something crowd up before the headliners arrived onto a simple stage set-up with a raised triangle of lights framing the band below. Western soundtracks faded out and QOTSA kicked into gear without addressing the crowd. Some early sound hiccups were corrected after the first track, and ‘No One Knows’ gave us something to sing along to.
After ‘My God is the Sun’, frontman Josh Homme finally greeted us and from here the gig really kicked off, the atmosphere seemed to electrify as the crowd were delighted to be addressed by the bands leader.
Homme has made headlines in recent years for his very public divorce and brutal custody battle, rehab stints, as well as recent cancer treatment. He has also opened up about dealing with the grief of losing many friends in recent years including Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins and author Anthony Bourdain. It’s a lot for one person to endure and yet on the Rockhal stage he was the perfect showman, delighting the audience with alternating affection and suave indifference. Homme has a languid, louche stage persona with a hint of the rattlesnakes of his native California. He smoothly moves from Jagger-esque strutting to ferocious intensity on vocal and guitar. He manages that intensity perfectly, slowing down the ringmaster routine to let the crowd see a more vulnerable side.
Before singing ‘Carnavoyeur’, Homme introduced the song with a nod to friends he’s lost, saying some songs are hard to write, especially songs about love when the person isn’t here anymore. When a guttural scream interrupted him from the crowd, Homme laughed and said, “there’s always one death metal mother*cker…that guy just took a sh*t and I’m trying to talk about love”. Carnavoyeur could go down as one of their greatest and could negate our very own Stephen ‘Steps’ Lowe’s Song 2 theory, as it sits sixth in the current album but has massive potential as a fan favourite.
After this, he launched into Emotion Sickness where Homme showed off his powerful vocal range and ability. The interactions with the crowd increased as Homme seemed to further settle into the evening with his Luxembourgish audience, responding “I love you too” to one woman’s cry of adoration and telling us that we seemed “more intellectual” than their usual audiences. In return the audience lapped it up, hanging on to his every word and laughing at his jokes, including when he slurred “if it’s any consolation we’re way better tonight than we were last night in Amsterdam”.
An hour into the gig, after jumping between songs from the new album and their previous albums, Homme announced that he “didn’t feel like playing” their setlist and asked if we wanted to hear something off their new album, the response wasn’t enthusiastic with some around me shouting a definite “no!” which tells us a lot about the crowd’s leaning towards their older collection. When two men after one another couldn’t name any songs from ‘In Times New Roman…’, Homme jestingly responded “well f*ck you” before delivering ‘In the Fade’ for a front row fan.
During ‘Straight Jacket Fitting’, Homme descended into the pit as fans grabbed him to get a fleeting touch of the frontman and blasted smartphones in his face trying to get a prized photo. The band repeated the song’s ascending and descending refrain and Homme instructed us to “sing it you sons of b*tches”. He then parted the crowd and walked among us to bring the track to a close.
When the stage went dark the audience screamed for an encore and didn’t let up until the band took to the stage for the final time, Homme now with a lit cigarette in his mouth. With a fresh pile of gusto, they launched into ‘Paper Machete’ featuring an amazing guitar solo by Troy Van Leeuwen and finished the night of with ‘Go with the Flow’, my personal favourite.
The night showed that Josh Homme is one of the leading rock n roll musicians of our generation, still expertly leading a band that has had a career spanning 27 years and, his showmanship, humour and oh-so-cool indifference is what made the night for me. I think many fans including myself were relieved that songs from their wider collection were peppered through songs from the latest album. And, although the energy seemed to lag during the middle of the concert, it was Homme’s interactions with the crowd and the band interacting with each other that brought it back for a stellar finish.
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