Queens of the Stone Age give light to the darkness of the catacombs
As we already anticipated in recent days (Read here) i Queens of the Stone Age They came out a particular project: the one concerning the concert they held in the Catacombs of Paris.
After the launch on social media, confirmations and official details arrive on the next release, “Queens of the Stone Age: Alive in the catacombs“A film that will see the” light “on June 5th.
It is of the cinematographic realization of a dream of the band, to perform in the tunnels of the Paris catacombs.
So says Joshua Homme the frontman of the American band
If you want to be persecuted, surrounded by several millions of dead people, it is the right place. I’ve never felt so welcome to my life.
The movie “Queens of the Stone Age: Alive in the catacombs”, Produced by La Blogotèque and directed by Thomas Rames It will be available for rental or purchase on the website of the Qotsa.com band, where pre -orders are already open. Who will buy it By June 7, exclusive access to the contents of the scene will receive, as well as the possibility of streaming and full download. An audio version will be announced in the coming weeks.
The contents of the film was shot and recorded in July 2024 and proposes a selected lineup among the Qotsa repertoire songs, each reworked in order to adapt to the context of the catacombs. The result is an interpretation of the band in its most intimate form … but literally surrounded millions of human remains, “The largest audience in front of which we have ever played” Joshua Homme says jokingly.
The catacombs of Paris are a underground ossuary that extends for 320 km under the city where they are collected Bodies buried in the eighteenth century, whose remains are largely exposed and many walls are built with skulls and bones.
Homme had been dreaming for almost twenty years to keep an Qotsa concert in the catacombs, since its first visit. The city of Paris, however, had never granted permission to any artist to perform in those tunnels. The Qotsa, respectful of the law, waited until they received the official approval.
Both the artistic and organizational part I have been planned and played with respect for the catacombs, also taking advantage of environmental sounds and acoustics (drops of water, echoes, natural resonances) and the dark atmospheres created by the lights that enhance the music. All in a context that does not have the comforting boundaries of a recording studio, however, allowing the band to go to the essence, bones, their music.
Homme says:
We play essential so because that place is so essential, which makes music essential, and essential words … it would be ridiculous to try to make rock there. All decisions were made from that space. It is the space that dictates everything, he commands him. In there you do what you are told.
The result is a version of the qtsa reduced to their most basic form: Homme, Troy Van Leeuwen, Michael Shuman, Dean Ferita and Jon Theodore accompanied by a three -element arches section, with chains and feattes used as percussion tools. “Alive in the catacombs “sees the band reduced to its essence by necessity (necessarily” unplugged “because there are no power outlets), with a car battery used to power an electrical piano. And everything is not filtered: each song was recorded live in a single recovery, without overwhelming or changes.
The American band is expected this summer in Italy for two dates:
July 15 – Pistoia Blues Festival, Pistoia
July 16 – Ama Music Festival, Romano D’Ezzelino (VI)
