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Rocking hillbillies join the Army |
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Written by JACKIE LEE KING / Photos by BARRY BRECHEISEN
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Thursday, 06 October 2005 |
“Attention Belmont shoppers there are some Queens of the Stone Age on the second floor ready to perform for you.” OK, that announcement didn’t happen, but that was about the amount of preparation that fans of the band received in a sneak unplugged concert that just coincidently coincided with the beginning of the end of the Belmont Army Surplus Store on Belmont.
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Queens of the Stone Age
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 Entertainment
 Art
Belmont Army Surplus Store
Chicago, Ill.
October 6, 2005
Setlist
1. “Monsters in the parasol”
2. “Give the mule what he wants”
3. “Leg of lamb”
4. “Regular John”
5. “Go with the flow”
6. “You got a killer scene there man”
7. “Burn the witch”
8. “Long slow goodbye”
9. “You would know”
10. “Mosquito song”
11. “Lost art of keeping a secret”
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In an effort to improve service, the CTA has decided to buy up all the property around the el stops at Fullerton (affecting another neighborhood icon Demon Dogs) and Belmont so that they can straighten the tracks. No comments from the peanut gallery. In any case, the show was a gift to shoppers of BASS. As the general public waited outside in the nippy fall weather, hipsters in the know entertained each other on the third floor in what appeared to be a VIP area as the Queens sound checked. After many refreshments we were herded down to the second floor and commanded to sit while loyal line waiters outside were herded in to a capacity concert.
Current band members Josh Homme, Joey Castillo, Alain Johannes, Troy Van Leeuwan were chilling out in what seemed like a house party where they just happen to be playing. It was low key, but high energy performance that even included nudity. “Hey…weren’t not playing until I see tit” proclaimed Homme, to which a large man just behind the sitting section lifted up his shirt and shook boob at the band. There was flirting back and forth as the night went on, and what a night it was.
No one knows why they didn’t do “No one knows” the big hit they had with Ex-Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl from 2002’s "Songs for the Deaf", but in the greater scheme of things the song wasn’t missed. After all QOTSA were in town to be the opening act for NIN the following night, they would perform it then. This was, how did Josh say it, kind of like a VH1 Storytellers.
They played an eclectic set of songs that they normally do not do, or alternative versions of the ones that they do. It was an impressive display of jamming out to a room full of fans. At one point a fan accidentally pulled a plug that just happened to be connected to the sound board, quashing what Homme later suggested would be his ultimate guitar solo. This was a night for fun and fuck-it with the crew; no one left unfulfilled. God save the Queens. Powered by AkoComment 2.0! |
