Queens of the Stone Age rule the Rave
Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme was ready to dance.
Seeing the towering 44-year-old rocker shimmying in the shadows Sunday at the Rave’s Eagles Ballroom was quite a surprise. But in a way, so was the creative direction that Queens took with its seventh studio album. “Villains,” released in August, was produced by Mark Ronson. Yes, “Uptown Funk” Mark Ronson. Like the synthesizer-embracing Spoon, ABBA-borrowing Arcade Fire and Jack Antonoff-collaborating St. Vincent, Queens is just the latest veteran indie-rock act to shake things up and embrace pop melodies and dance rhythms this year. But while “Villains” under Ronson’s guidance brings out the dance-floor undertones from the group, Queens is still a band that rocks hard, evident at its intense Milwaukee show Sunday for a sold-out crowd of about 3,500.
“Villains” standout “Feet Don’t Fail Me” got to some foot-shuffling guitarrock grooves, but guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen’s dense desert rock riffs Sunday still conjured visions of dread, while Homme summarized the sentiment of the song singing about being caught between “pleasure and agony.”
Another album track, “Un-Reborn Again” rode atop Dean Fertita’s thick synthesizer waves, absorbing yet slightly detached, reminiscent of Vangelis’ Blade Runner score, with Jon Theodore’s walloping drum work and Homme’s soaring vocals providing the song’s heartbeat and soul.
Homme was working harder compared to his physically stiff display at the Riverside Theater three years back. His domineering rock-star stature had a little assistance during “Sick, Sick, Sick”; the lighting design cast him in stark white interchangeably from left and right, creating a contrasting shadow effect that lent the performance more mystique.
But Homme deserved most of the credit for his command, his vibrant croon channeling the tone of David Bowie and the snarling swagger of recent collaborator Iggy Pop during “Domesticated Animals,” another “Villains” standout. Homme also offered knee bends, leg kicks and visceral spasms during his meatier guitar parts, and a face-off with falsetto-singing bassist Michael Schuman during “Smooth Sailing” was tense enough to be construed as threatening.
Homme’s been the lone constant in Queens, and frequently deemed the band’s visionary auteur. But his current lineup stepped it up Sunday.
Van Leeuwen had his own pent-up aggression, frequently smacking upright neon poles that doubled as punching bags and wobbled violently from his attacks. Theodore, who used to drum for the Mars Volta, was a menace across Queens’ aggressive 21 songs, earning his own dynamic solo that rejuvenated breakout single “No One Knows” Sunday.
Sunday’s show was slotted for an hour and 40 minutes, about the length of the 2014 Riverside gig. But the band stretched it out to two hours, culminating perfectly with the devastating finale “A Song for the Dead” — with Van Leeuwen riffing on his guitar from above his head, Theodore taking over with another heart-seizing drum solo, and the simmering crowd finally boiling over and breaking out into multiple mosh pits . And a grinning Homme started dancing again, this time while straddling one of those neon poles.