As proven by their new “Catacombs Tour,” which kicked off Thursday, October 2nd at the Chicago Theatre, Queens of the Stone Age are currently obsessed with three things: time, death, and reinvention.
It makes sense. Frontman Josh Homme has already faced down a cancer diagnosis and a recent separate health scare that forced him to cancel a portion of QOTSA’s 2024 tour and undergo emergency surgery. Not to mention, the band has been rockin’ for almost 30 years; both personally and artistically, Homme and the band are wrestling with real notions of mortality and the decaying, uncaring nature of time.
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Earlier this year, such themes manifested in their concert film/live EP Alive in the Catacombs, which saw Queens of the Stone Age perform an intimate live set deep in the Parisian Catacombs (read a first-hand account of that experience in our cover story with Homme). Now, the usually hard-rocking act has translated those acoustic, macabre vibes into a stage show, one that transforms their ear-splitting rippers into a smoky theater production of dark folk and desert rock.
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From a fan’s perspective, QOTSA’s “Catacombs” production starts well before any of the band members step onto the stage. The theater setting as well as the band encouraging audience members to show up dressed in their finest sets a very specific tone. Entering the Chicago Theatre, the place was already filled with fog, as if we were all about to take part in some ritual of resurrection.
After Paris Jackson’s opening set, the lights dimmed and a drone track played through the mains to reset the mood. After about five minutes of tension building (respect for holding out for so long), Homme slowly emerged from the audience carrying a stool. He launched into the opening cut, “Running Joke / Paper Machete,” alone with a microphone in one hand and the sole source of light in the other. As the tune progressed, the remaining players emerged one by one, until the stage was full with the band and their accompanying string players.
What followed was deconstructed rock as theater, broken into three acts: one mirroring the original stripped-back Alive in the Catacombs set, one that expanded the sonic scope with new instruments and the first touches of electronics, and one that felt relatively closer to a traditional rock show. (“Relatively” being a key modifier, as the tracks remained entirely rearranged to include strings and horns.)