Stone Age Swagger: Queens of the Stone Age at SB Bowl

This review is being written by a metalhead and punk. This review is not being written by a psych or stoner rocker. I was not a part of the Kyuss revelation. My history with Queens of the Stone Age mostly amounts to seeing “No One Knows”, “Go With The Flow” and “Little Sister” on MTV. There is one moment though, that Queens of the Stone Age changed my life. In 2007, along with three other college companions, I went on a drug fueled pilgrimage to Las Vegas for the shortly lived but deeply missed two-day rager known as Vegoose. The lineup for which featured Rage Against The Machine, The Stooges performing Funhouse, Daft Punk, and Queens of the Stone Age among a multitude of other great bands.

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The four of us were on a mission that weekend to consume cocaine for the first time. A drug that seemed like an anachronism to us, a thing of the 80’s as extinct as the quaalude. However, at the most miraculous, uncanny moment that the festival could have produced, the drug magically came to us. During the Queens of the Stone Age song “Feel Good Hit of the Summer”, where Josh Homme lists off a multitude of substances meant to inspire his summer happenings, he bursts through the chorus simply by repeating “Cocaine, cocaine, cocaine” as if this drug stood head above the rest of all the other substances he listed.

It was at this exact moment when a drug dealer moseyed through the crowd, wearing a pimp hat and announcing his wares. “Ecstasy, acid, shrooms!” he heralded to the audience. The most daring of my friends then asked the man, “any chance you have cocaine”. Which he affirmed in the positive, handing us a few rocks for cash. Standing there, in the QOTSA audience, we broke the rock up into pebbles and shoved it up our nostrils. The majority of my friends stayed there after the song, feeling the high of the outrageous moment as people shouted at us “They’re playing your song!”, but I went on to the other stage because the Stooges were starting. It was an especially violent pit but I remember feeling no pain. What I do remember and what I will always remember is that moment with Queens of the Stoneage as part of my personal rock and roll history.

Fast forward to 2024. Queens had been hibernating for a few years since releasing their critically acclaimed album Villains in 2017. It took them six years to follow it up with In Times The New Roman… which set them on The End is Nero Tour where they were embraced with people that missed them dearly but connected to the music like they never left.

Before the show, the elitist part of me considered Queens of the Stone Age rather vanilla compared to the extreme genres I frequented. However, discovering the sort of swagger they tap into, I was reminded what true rock and roll was supposed to be. Not a dumpster fire of crusty train hoppers and potential serial killers, but a leather-clad nocturnal rump romp where guys and gals can dance, sing, smoke and drink together and be eternally young for at least an evening. Santa Barbara Bowl was of course the perfect place to cater to this need, with beautiful greenery and fresh air deepening the audience’s intimacy with every passing note by the artist.

The band launched out the gate hard, opening with “Little Sister” one of the biggest hits off Lullabies to Paralyze, the festivities were in full swing right away, not a single person refusing to dance. From there, the band sprinkled the set from various parts of their career but focusing on their new album heavily with songs like “Emotional Sickness”, “Paper Machete”, and my favorite off the album, “Carnavoyeur”. With Times the New Roman, I feel like the band expanded their sound by incorporating much more Bowie influence than was previously present, abandoning the dusty Joshua Tree influence of stoner rock and Kyuss for a brand spanking new vision of glam rock sheen, a much needed sound the has been scene is thirsty for.

Finishing their show with “No One Knows” and a heavy version of “A Song For The Dead”, I came away from this show with a new appreciation for Queens of the Stone Age. Maybe I should tone down my tastes I thought, it pays off not to be so extreme. Play it cool, that’s what Queens of the Stone Age at the Santa Barbara Bowl taught me. Always play it cool.