Queens of the Stone Age in Milan: Speed, Frenzy and Mastery

The Queens of the Stone Age a Milan they did it, and in a big way. After canceling the concert at the AMA festival due to an unspecified “health problem”, and keeping the Milanese fans in suspense until the very end, the July 6 Josh Homme and Co. Return to I-Days for the last date of their Italian passage inaugurated two days before in Rome.

The day of the Milanese festival, this time hosted by the Snai San Siro Hippodrome, opens in the afternoon with Kemama and VaccinesThe British band led by Justin Young takes the audience for a ride on his “van full of pink carnations”, between songs from the new album “Pick-up full of pink carnations” and older songs such as the closing “All my friends are falling in love”, with narrative sounds and catchy motifs, between guitars, pop and electronics. Then it is the turn of the Royal Bloodthe English duo composed of singer and bassist Mike Kerr together with drummer Ben Thatcher. On stage the two, accompanied by keyboardist Darren James in some songs, create a sound wall capable of investing and embrace the audience, so much so that there seem to be many more on stage. While the gray clouds above the Hippodrome do not seem to promise well, Royal Blood warm up the audience with the power of their limited instrumentation, between distortions and changes of rhythm, with an hour-long set that combines songs from the latest album “Back to the water below” and pieces that have now become their warhorses such as “Trouble’s coming” and “Figure it out”.

Everything seems to be going well when the hour x approaches: the sky opens up and when it is now 9:30 pm the speakers broadcast the inevitable song from the soundtrack of “Conan the Barbarian”. The Queens of the Stone Age then make their entrance on stage and each member of the band reaches their station immersing themselves in the minimal scenography made up of lights arranged diagonally. “Hey, sister, why you all alone?”: Josh Homme’s voice comes in with determination and incisiveness over the guitar riffs and pounding percussion as the concert kicks off with “

Little Sister”, sparking an immediate response from the audience. “Buona notte”, the frontman then says in Italian to greet the fans under the stage of the Ippodromo, provoking laughter and affection for his poor knowledge of our language. There are few words that the singer and guitarist addresses to those present during the evening, leaving total expression to the music and never referring to the cancellation of the previous evening’s show.

On the stage of I-Days Homme does not lose his Gascon rocker charisma – who over the years has been a school for many, starting with Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys, to name a few – and its raw and direct depth. The group’s frontman does not seem to show signs of discomfort and gives a gentlemanly performance, without losing tension in his voice or precision on the guitar. Troy Van Leeuwen gives free rein to his imagination with his six strings and desire to move, while Dean Fertita on keyboards he manages to construct the nuances of the various moods of the Queens of the Stone Age.

From the other side of the stage comes the unbridled seriousness of .’s bass.Michael Schumanwhich finds behind it the fury combined with stylistic precision of Jon Theodore on drums. After another song capable of pushing the audience to the top of their lungs with “Smooth sailing”, the group continues with mastery in fishing from their latest albums pieces that allow them to narrate a sonic journey within their own history, playing “My God is the sun” and then “The evil has landed”, before “Paper machete” from the latest album “In Times New Roman…”. “We shall drink, we shall dance, and we shall have a good fucking time”, “We shall drink, we shall dance and we shall have a good fucking time”, is the wish, which sounds like a promise, that Josh Homme makes before one of the most beautiful moments of the concert with “Emotional Sickness”, built with precision live note by note, between tempo changes and volumes, with the crowd singing the chorus as soon as the microphone is turned towards them. One of the most beautiful pieces of the QOTSA repertoire follows, absent from the Rome setlist: “I sat by the ocean”, again taken from that little gem of “…Like clockwork”.

The Queens of the Stone Age continue their show at full speed, relying on speed and frenzywhile the audience tries not to lose ground and not to be eaten alive by the mosquitoes that have targeted the Hippodrome. The darkness of the evening allows you to better enjoy the scenography of the lights, which frame the band in a impetuous rock and roll dance Milanese fans are satisfied with songs like “The lost art of keeping a secret” and “Make it wit chu”, where the spectators’ chants join the voices and sounds on stage.

Then the attitude changes and the pit can go back to unleashing the fury of “You think I ain’t worth a dollar, but I feel like a millionaire” with the drums like a jackhammer, which leads to the most anticipated song of the show. A guitar riff that sticks to you, clear percussion hits and a melody with a strong character: “.No one knows” does not disappoint those present, who inevitably realize that they are close to the end of the concert. An hour and ten minutes after the start of the live, the speed closes the penultimate song in the setlist, leaving the fans at the mercy of theintensity of a live that is already giving enough. Without interruptions and without encores, the final song of the evening arrives, another of the band’s most significant: “A song for the dead”. The band leaves space once again for long instrumental interludes showing How pulsating is the rock of Queens of the Stone Age still todaywho are still capable of playing at their best, at the end of the Milanese show confirm their now full maturity.

Lineup:

Little Sister
Smooth Sailing
My God Is the Sun
The Evil Has Landed
Paper Machete
Emotional Sickness
I Sat by the Ocean
Time & Place
Go With the Flow
The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret
Carnival Voyeur
Make It With Chu
You Think I Ain’t Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire
No One Knows
A Song for the Dead