Queens of the Stone Age: Always Themselves, Always Under Change

To understand the origins of the latest Queens of the Stone Age (QOTSA) tour, consider the primary issue with modern-day amusement parks. In the era of the line-skipping pass, the wait on either economic end of the rollercoaster queue is equally as painful. Josh Homme, frontman of the desert rock outfit, found himself in a similar scenario at the Catacombs, a labyrinth of skeletons in the underground of Paris, France. QOTSA would later record a live album in the institution of neatly stacked human remains, something Homme confessed stemmed from a privileged place of, “How do I skip the line?” Unfortunately for him, the Catacombs are not Disneyland, and his only option was performance.

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Thus, as of June 2025, we have Alive in the Catacombs, featuring live recordings of fresh compositional takes on a variety of the band’s songs. Death has crossed the minds of the band’s members frequently in the last few years. The deaths of close friends and collaborators, such as Mark Lanegan and Anthony Bourdain, as well as Homme’s close bouts with the reaper, have made the topic unignorable. Take a look through the lyric sheets of …Like Clockwork or In Times New Roman… and you’d find head-on encounters with morbid subject matter, executed with shocking grace and humor. Better to throw yourself into the dark than let it chase you. And what better way to embrace death than performing to an audience of the dead French?

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QOTSA have been touring internationally since last October on behalf of their gothic live endeavor, bringing along an orchestra for a more theatrical approach. Long gone are the days of shirtless screaming in 100-degree weather — although it is worth noting that former bassist Nick Oliveri, the main practitioner of such screaming, briefly reunited with the group at their Joshua Tree tour date, so maybe we’re not so far removed. Regardless, we have all put our shirts back on and turned on the air conditioning, prepared to soak in a more elegant performance from our ancient matriarchs.

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QOTSA is my personal favorite band of all time. I do not think they’ve ever released an album unworthy of a full listen in their 27 years of work. They are a band that can make me laugh, cry, dance (no footage available), mosh, and drive tastefully over the speed limit (allegedly). I’ve seen them live before in their more typical five-piece headbanging concert fashion, and can confirm that Homme, along with his bandmates Troy Van Leeuwen, Michael Schuman, Jon Theodore, and Dean Fertita are the truest badasses in music. Packed with all of my personal history with the band, I walked into the Paramount Theater on April 29th ready for a more wine-and-dine vibe from the band after having been used to a more tequila-and-“What happened last night?” feel.

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Never ashamed of flagrant showmanship, Homme emerged in front of a closed curtain in a velvet three-piece suit, clutching a lantern as he performed the acapella introduction to “Running Joke.” Slowly, band members and string musicians emerged from behind the curtain, carefully inserting their instrumental contributions into the piece. Act I saw the band flawlessly reenact their Catacombs EP in front of the curtain. The crowd respected the live fourth wall, looking on in awe with few attempts at involvement. The band was here to put on a show, and they were experiencing it as much as the audience was.

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“I wanted to say, I’ve lived here a few times in my life in Seattle, and I fucking hated it,” Homme sarcastically quipped with the audience. He was previously a touring member of the Washington-based Screaming Trees in the mid-90s. “Individuality runs rampant here,” he said, somewhat more sincerely. “We didn’t say dress up, we said dress your best.” Homme knows his clientele, and in many cases, it's the self-proclaimed freaks. He grew up in an isolated, small desert community and was involved in musical endeavors in the weird corners of the Pacific Northwest. Homme knows the quirks that arise under isolation that some may proclaim weird, and he chose to celebrate the fact that his crowd of nearly 3,000 featured that many individual souls.

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Having made his vocal thesis, Homme put back up his fourth wall as the lights died down. At long last, the curtain opened to a sea of red light, casting musicians’ shadows over the walls of the Paramount. The musicians opened with perhaps QOTSA’s most foreboding number, “Someone’s In The Wolf,” replacing distorted guitars with crashing brass instruments. Following this, the tracks of Act II sounded like a soundtrack’s theme for its villain (Enter the aptly titled Villains, the band’s 2017 album). Homme prowled the stage and the first few rows, donning a cleaver in his non-microphone hand, casting himself in his own opera.

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No matter how much a rock band strays, nothing can keep them from their true loves: amplified guitars. Act III of the performance was the closest thing to a normal QOTSA concert that the audience would see. While the orchestra stayed put, the band picked up some more familiar instruments and turned up the volume for the conclusion of their set. The setlist decisions make perfect sense by this point: the songs from the final act needed to be performed to their grandest degree. In the instance of the catalogue selections, the typical five-piece group alone can’t achieve what a symphony can. These songs simply had to be performed this way, and The Catacombs Tour was the chance to do it correctly. 

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“I spilled my tequila. Can I have some more, please?” predictably came over the speakers as Homme transitioned into his second and final spiel. “I had the luxury of living here when, in a way, the music scene almost felt like it was over, but it wasn’t,” he reminisced. “I learned so much about culture, art, and life, and snobbiness,” he riffed, falling back into his trademark sarcasm. However, he reminded the audience of Seattle’s importance to his band’s journey. After all, QOTSA played their first-ever show at the OK Hotel in 1997. The circle that opened on that day felt as if it were finally completed. Similarly, the show closed as it opened: with acapella. “Long Slow Goodbye” was dedicated to the moment and to lost friends, placing an appropriate cap on the death-inspired celebration.

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The target audience for this show was every artist’s favorite: the open-minded and the die-hards. QOTSA tried something very new on this tour, and they weren’t going to play it safe with their setlist. Casual fans expecting the radio hits would not have found any of them in the set. Rather, QOTSA dusted off old deep cuts, keeping their legacy deep and the moment young. The timing in their career is dead on to make such decisions. QOTSA are far from being a legacy act — seasoned, yes, but far from washed up.

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For the fans who thought they may have seen all that the group has to offer, the boys proved that their inspiration, internally and externally, hasn’t died, and may never before they themselves find their way into the Catacombs.

- JJ