Thursday, April 3, 2008

Please Queens of the Stone Age - give up now

I've been a QOTSA fan for pretty much all of their existence, and a massive Kyuss fan before that, and over the last couple of years I've kinda grown used to my beloved band losing the plot, particularly with the pretty hopeless "Era Vulgaris" album and the unfocussed mess that is "Lullabies to Paralyze". But I've stuck it out, as to me QOTSA represented everything great about American rock music, their first three records are unlike anything any band has released before or since, and they always delivered, even if the majority of the payload in recent years has been pretty weak material and an ever-fluctuating line-up. Still, there was the odd moment of magic on each disc, and the Desert Sessions has always been a welcome excursion. But when the parent band is eclipsed by the Desert Sessions collective something must be wrong.

Anyhow, I've tried to catch QOTSA every time they've been in Ireland, and even in such poxy surrounds as the Main Stage at Oxegen they have never failed or disappointed. But I've noticed a gradual decline in their stock, their interest, and and in Josh, their ginger beanpole leader, in recent years. Sure, the hired guns give it socks, but the band has been a shadow of its once great self for years now, and despite assuring myself that they will one day return to reach the heights they once did with consumate ease, it's been difficult to muster any enthusiasm for them as I once did. I can't even listen to the last two albums anymore they're that bad.

But the news that QOTSA are supporting LINKIN PARK in the RDS in Dublin at 70 QUID a ticket is the final straw for me.

The last time LINKIN PARK played Dublin it was at the same venue was with Metallica, The Darkness and a few others and they were bottled off the stage from the second they walked onto it. 40,000 people booed en masse during their set, the "DJ" goaded the crowd to try and hit him, and almost in slow motion, a beer bottle then curled through the air and hit him right on the forehead. So poor was the reception and the degree of hatred shown towards them when Chester Copperpot or whatever he's called unfurled a shop bought Irish tricolour that their set had to be cut short. It was magic stuff. Like Donington in the good old bottle of piss days. Even James Hetfield took the piss out of them when Metallica came on.

So, it's a sad end to a once great band like QOTSA to be playing second fiddle to an outfit like LP, and a it's a sad way to end my relationship with a once great band... but this is just the pits, and to me it sadly represents what QOTSA is about nowadays: Money. It's fuck the fans, fuck credibility and fuck their legacy. I wish Josh Homme would do the decent thing later this year and split the band, as support slots with the likes of Linkin Park undermines everything they have ever set out to achieve and represents the nadir of a decline into cliche.

I wish at this stage that Josh would just give it up, and stop pretending that QOTSA is a band. We know it's a nice cheque he's probably getting for the RDS but it's going to cost you a lot more in street cred.


So goodbye Josh, my lovely friend, your band means no more,
I hope we'll meet again, I've lost you now for sure
Goodbye my lovely friend, I loved you from the start
I knew that it would end, but didn't have the heart to see us part
No I must go.

7 comments:

Leigh O'Gorman said...

although i must admit i've never been a QOTSA fan, the idea of them supporting Linkin Park is somewhat absurd

not only are LP fairly awful, but i also would have thought that QOTSA were a bigger band and could have filled the RDS themselves
70 quid is also well rich for a gig....

Ronan Casey said...

Exactly Leigh.

They're doing a few shows with Eagles of Death Metal and the MAGNIFICENT Masters of Reality in Europe and it alone would surely fill Dalymount Park or somewhere if MCD had any imagination.

It's like Nine Inch Nails last year. They get these great bands and just throw them onto any bill in the hope suckers pay 70 quid to see a support band.

Anonymous said...

Hey lunch box, the Foos rocked!

Nine Inch Nails obviously helped make the gig worth the cover charge, but Dave Grohl put on a good show too.

Sinéad said...

I was just thinking this the other day. MCD really need to put some serious thought into what bands they put together as sometimes the fans just don't mix very well.

Especially Linkin Park fans with... well... ANYONE else.

Leigh O'Gorman said...

i wouldn't a replay of the metallica incident of a few years back
;)

Anonymous said...

I just stumbled onto this blog by mistake having googled The klf and then read this about QOTSA. Mighty bad news, what a horrendously stupid idea on the part of the promoters and Josh Homme. Rotten judgement all round, they'll lose some old fans (like me) by doing this. Was at that Foos/NIN Marlay park gig last year and I walked away a broken woman. I like the Foos, and credit to them for putting on a really enjoyable show but it was just terrible to see Trent and the boys shoved into a tiny time slot, in the daylight so the lights weren't even very impressive and then just shuffling off. It should have been a glorious night but it was just a disappointment.
I cannot say enough bad things about linkin park. There are no words.

Anonymous said...

If you went to that concert you would see that Linkin Park fucking rocked that concert 100 times better than Q.O.T.S.A, Who completely left their fans short, and the place was filled with even more people when Linkin Park came on, and apparently everyone said half of the people would leave when Linkin Park came on, Quess that blew up in their faces. I dont know what people dont like about Linkin Park, But they really need to pull their big heads out of their asses and sit down and listen to their albums before they trash talk about them.
And Linkin Park have supported Metallica plenty of times, even now this year in Europe and England,never got abuse, Must just be the Irish crowds, and if thats the case it makes me ashamed to say im Irish
If going and bottling bands at concerts is you peoples idea of fun and wat concerts are all about, then your all big sellouts, not the bands cause your the ones that dont seem to go for the music but giving yourselves big egos and feeling all class cause you just bottled a band you dont like, I hate people like that.