Queens Of The Stone Age - Live - Cotton Club Atlanta - 05-27-02

Label: Bootleg
Year: 2002

Two reasons for posting this one:
Reason One - This documents a band at the height of their collective powers, and chronicles their ability to "rock hard" beyond what the average band is capable. Queens Of The Stone Age has always ruled, but when they unleashed Songs For The Deaf, it catapulted them into an untouchable orbit of creativity and sheer fun. They were a multi-headed hydra of volume and heft that commanded total compliance to their whims, and paid in dividends of massive grooves and blazing heat. They could not be topped at this particular moment.
Reason Two - I was at this show, and it goes down in my personal Top Five musical things I've ever witnessed. Dave Grohl is a beast of a drummer, and seeing him in a small venue playing these percussive songs was a real treat. Nick Oliveri was in top form as the menacing dirtbag voice of the band. Mark Lanegan seemed to appear from a cloud of smoke to add an unspoken gravitas to the proceedings, only to disappear into the bowels of the venue (one can only assume) leaving a big, gravelly throated hole in your ears. Troy van Leeuwen was the best dressed man on stage that night, possibly even in the entire venue, and his coloring of each song gave depth and resonance to what are already heavy weight compositions. And Josh Homme was the guy you want him to be, cocky and self-deprecating all at once. His riffs and solos, alternately lazy and scalding, cannot be underestimated, they pile one on top of the next until you see no light but the sounds of the high desert psychosis. Each part of the puzzle fit perfectly into place that night in that club.
Reason Three (bonus) - While in the restroom at a urinal the concertgoer (and bathroom goer) next to me had the gall to wear flip-flop sandals (I believe referred to as "thongs" in some parts of the world) to a rock-n-roll show. This didn't sit well with me at the time, as an arbiter of high fashion, as a cultural critic, and as a man, so I did what his father should have done to him many years previous, I urinated on his exposed toes. I could not allow his transgression to go unpunished (and I was sliiiiiiiightly hammered). To my surprise (and probably to my good fortune) he was complicit in this hot liquid assault, nary making a sound or even so much as adjusting the position of his foot, simply going about his business as I did mine. I suppose he was a fetishist? Either way, it made me feel better about my evening, I had on some level administered justice, and could enjoy the remainder of the show knowing I had "done my part". Not something I necessarily recommend, but sometimes you gotta "take a stand", you know?
So, to fully appreciate this live recording, you may want to ask a buddy you can trust to open up and piss across your open toes...should heighten the overall experience for you both.

DL