Queens of the Stone Age didn’t waste any time grabbing the audience’s attention during their 2023 Louder Than Life set in Louisville, Kentucky.
The West Coast rockers opened with arguably their most popular song, the lead single from their 2002 album Songs for the Deaf, ‘No One Knows’.
“What a beautiful thing you have here, we’re very happy to be here,” frontman Josh Homme told the crowd.
Queens of the Stone Age were the final band to rock the Loudmouth Stage on the fourth and final day of the festival on Sunday, September 24, 2023.
Sporting a black jacket and slicked back, blonde hair, Homme brought his customary swagger and badassery to the centre of the stage. His persona looked like he was ready to take over the presidency of a motorcycle club. Move over, Jax Teller.
“Well, I hope you’re having a lovely time tonight,” Homme said.
“I’m a little stoned, so I don’t know if you’re having a good time or not. Do you feel good? Look to your left, read the sign, do you fuckin’ feel good? Well, let’s fuckin’ do it then, shall we? Let’s dance.”
Homme was flanked by guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen, bass guitarist Michael Shuman, keyboardist and guitars Dean Fertita and drummer Jon Theodore, the same QOTSA lineup since 2013.
The band has been busy all summer with their, The End Is Nero tour, which is in support of their eight studio album, In Times New Roman…, which was released back in June.
During the tour announcement earlier this year, the band said the shows were an invitation “to come celebrate the end of the world, which we hear is ‘in a month or two.’
“They would like to encourage the obscene and the clean, the outcasts and the weirdos, and anyone and everyone in between to attend, this is where you belong. Leave your judgment at the door, bring anything and everything else,” the band stated.
During their Louder Than Life set, the band played three tunes off their new album: ‘Emotion Sickness’, ‘Carnavoyeur’ and ‘Time & Place’.
QOTSA mixed in their more seasoned tunes throughout the set.
In particular, QOTSA showcased incredible, back-and-forth guitar work on 2017’s ‘The Way You Used to Do’ and a pounding, collaborative energy on 2013’s ‘My God Is the Sun’, where Theodore’s pumping bass drum could be felt through the core of the audience, enough the resuscitate the beat of any still heart in the crowd.
In a beautiful display of musicianship, Fertita’s keyboards complimented Homme’s guitar work on 2007’s ‘Make It Wit Chu’.
Homme’s on-point, falsetto singing of the lyrics: “If I told that I knew about the sun and the moon, I’d be untrue” fit the setting perfectly at the Highland Festival Grounds, as a half moon shone brightly in the Kentucky sky. The band added a tag of The Rolling Stones hit ‘Miss You’ to the song and Homme engaged the crowd, encouraging them to join in on the chorus, before he ripped the closing guitar solo.
“It is a pleasure and a joy to bring pleasure and joy to all of you tonight,” Homme told the crowd.
“We spend so much of our time just being fucking domesticated animals, it’s nice to get out,” the singer said, before the band tore into 2017’s ‘Domesticated Animals’.
QOTSA concluded their set with one of the most hard-hitting, badass songs in modern rock n’ roll, 2002’s ‘A Song for the Dead’. Crowd surfers were a plenty for the finale, as the rockers exited the stage on a high note.
Here is QOTSA’s full Louder Than Life setlist:
1. No One Knows
2. First It Giveth
3. Smooth Sailing
4. My God Is the Sun
5. Emotion Sickness
6. Carnavoyeur
7. The Way You Used to Do
8. Time & Place
9. Make It Wit Chu (with snippet of the Rolling Stones’ “Miss You”)
10. Domesticated Animals
11. Little Sister
12. Go With the Flow
13. A Song for the Dead
Here are some photos of their performance by Steve Thrasher:
Follow the band on their official website https://qotsa.com/.