November 3, 1998

London Highbury Garage

The Queens are a little bit [a]Kiss[/a], a little bit cussed, willing to tease with populist hooks before the fuck-you guitar assault...

A wise man once said, "One good thing about music - when it hits, you feel no pain." This was clearly in the days before QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE. Their formula is simple: take a few difficult chords, play loud, add occasional atonal squirts of guitar noise and overlay with vocals by EDDIE VEDDER's more miserable younger brother. What makes it so painful is the fact that out of this butch squall of sound come ghosts of melodies and chunky tunes dynamic enough to hassle THE STOOGES. But as soon as they appear, they're lost beneath one of bandleader JOSH HOMME's grinding guitar solos.

Members of this band used to be in KYUSS, a name which makes more sense when listening to this new ensemble. The Queens are a little bit KISS, a little bit cussed, willing to tease with populist hooks before the fuck-you guitar assault. 'Mexicola' could be a heavier OASIS (if they'd ripped off The MC5 instead of THE BEATLES) but they follow this with the goth histrionics of 'You Would Know', unwilling to show us a good time without immediate rebuttal.

With the Garage packed and crowd surfers already bobbing above the audience, Josh knows he's preaching to the converted. But, ultimately, it feels like the reconstituted Kyuss have found an even more apposite name. This is music to watch dinosaurs to.