Queens of The Stone Age make a highly anticipated “Villians” Tour stop in Indianapolis with Royal Blood.
The Queens of the Stone Age show at the Murat Theater in the Old National Center had been sold out for weeks. Inside the dimly lit and smoke-filled venue, everyone was up and standing well before the house lights dropped and QOTSA took to the stage. This crowd was clearly ready to rock.
A huge roar greeted Josh Homme, Troy Van Leeuwen, Dean Fertita, Michael Shuman and Jon Theodore as they kicked things off with “If I Had a Tail” followed immediately by the bass-heavy “Monsters in the Parasol” and the evening was off to a blazing start.
The atmosphere on stage, with deep red and green backlights washing over the crowd with copious amounts of billowing fog, was accentuated with several 10-foot-high LED light poles positioned randomly on stage which played well with the hard-driving set from QOTSA.
Over the course of the evening, Queens of the Stone Age performed something from almost every one of their albums including huge hit and fan favorite “No One Knows”. Touring in support of Villians, released in August of this year, the band included a sampling of songs from that album including “Feet Don’t Fail Me” and “Head Like a Haunted House”
A welcome surprise and stand out moment of the night was a raucous rendition of “Mexicola” with the thunderous opening bass riff literally shaking the walls. Queens of the Stone Age wrapped up their set with a 2-song encore beginning with another song from Villians, “Un-Reborn Again”, followed by the crowd pleasing “A Song for the Dead” closing out a fantastic evening and leaving the sold-out crowd thoroughly satiated.
Opening the evening were the Brighton, UK based rock duo, Royal Blood. Featuring Mike Kerr on vocals, bass & guitar with Ben Thatcher on drums/percussion, Royal Blood is touring in support of their recent release How Did We Get So Dark. Their set included several songs from the new album including “Where Are You Now?” and “Lights Out” along with the tour debut of “You Can Be So Cruel”.
