In an age when flaky, indistinguishable pop controls the popular music market,
some adaring musicians are unafraid to stand apart. The Take Only What You Can Handle tour, featuring the flamboyant diva Peaches (right) with headliners …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead and Queens of the Stone Age, proves that today’s music execs have failed to water down the angry, guitar-smashing vengeance of genuine rock and roll.
Canadian expatriate, electro pop-punk-hip-hop queen Peaches gave Friday’s concert the appropriate raunchy flare. This counter-culture symbol who bangs out beats on her Roland 505 synthesizer, has wowed Germany’s club scene, where she has built a reputation for her outrageous live shows. Though her distinct groove is little-known stateside, she quickly grabbed the audience’s attention, strutting out on stage clad in a fashion mullet, white hot pants, black tank top, and pink satin jacket. Peaches even managed to baffle this alternative crowd with her over the top style. Some thought she was sexy, some thought she must be foreign, and some even thought Peaches was a joke, but alas, I felt privileged to be in
on “The Teaches of Peaches.”
The subjects of the former school teacher’s songs do not vary much. There are songs about sex, there are songs about drugs, there are songs about sex and drugs, and a few songs about “rocking,” some of which left the audience wondering if the queen of these pseudo-feminist songs was really as liberated as she though. But none the less, with Peaches, the live show was
definitely where it’s at. Multiple costume changes including
glittery pink briefs, satin bras, fishnets and even a strap-on dildo and an S&M leather corset made for madness that further confused the crowd, who belted out the occasional cheer for her pelvic gyrations. But it was clear throughout the set that the American crowd has not received Peaches as their European counterparts have. Perhaps Americans are too prudish to really appreciate her outrageous style, but isn’t a great rock show s
upposed to be about letting go and having a good time? Surrender to the Rock!
Despite Peaches outrageous debauchery, she was not to upstage the headliners, who stunned the crowd on their musical merit and raw energy alone. Fanfare aside, Trail of Dead took to the fully lit stage, plugged in to the din of their amps feedback and let it rip. Although they are playing second fiddle to Queens of the Stone Age on this tour, the tag-team of vocalists Conrad Keely and Neil Busch displayed unsurpassed energy and audacity from the get go, breaking into the first song, “It Was there That I Saw You,” rising above the wall feedback and pounded drums. This song from their latest album, Source Tags and Codes, sung by guitarist Conrad Keely, is a roller coaster ride of crescendos that recalls Nirvana with The Who’s Keith Moon on drums. Next the bass player took over the vocals on “Baudelaire,” also from their latest release.
A rhythmic post-punk number, its vibrant energy and that of the band got the crowd bouncing up and down.
The energy continued to build on and off stage, with Neil Bush on several occasions to wonder amongst the sweaty crowd. The bands energy also built as they transitioned into more familiar, older material from their earlier independent albums. These tracks were much noisier, marked by lots of feedback as the guitarists rammed the necks of their guitars into the speaker cabinets. Though the band did have short lived, seemingly introspective moments, the set was mostly a whirlwind of vicious noise, band members flailing around the stage, taking every move from the rock and roll handbook and making them their own. Those that failed to catch the bands energy, sitting calmly at the back of the bar, were chided by Keely for being boring, while Neece came back from behind the drum kit to throw a water bottle at them. This band would do anything to provoke a reaction. The band finally built to a climax on their last number “A Perfect Teenhood,” from their album Madonna. After bashing their way through the nine-song set, they finished in true rock and roll fasion, smashing their equipment and toppling amplifiers over the front of the stage. Then they exited with the same understated silence that they entered, as the audience gasped to catch their breath.
The Queens of the Stone Age had a hard act to follow, and failed to match the feverish pitch of their predecessors, with a set that was much less punk and much more arena rock-complete with flashing lights and fog. But despite their definecies in some areas, coming off their latest, high-sales album the audience made it clear who the most popular, headlining band was. They took the stage and warmed up with “Monster in the Parasol” from their 2000 album Rated R, kicking the crowd into high gear with a scream-along rendition of “Feel Good Hit of the Summer,” the audience chanting back, “Nicotine, Valium, Vicodin, Marijuana, Ecstasy and alcohol . . . c-c-c-Cocaine!!!”
Throughout its set the band played songs from all three of their albums, as well as an obscure b-side, executing them professionally with leader Josh Homme trading vocal duties with bassist Nick Oliveri and former Screaming Trees front-man Mark Lanegan, who stumbled onstage cloaked in shadow to croak a few songs. They closed their set with a well-executed medley of “Song for the Deaf,” and their most well known song, 2000’s single “Lost Art of Keeping a Secret.” Had they ended the show there, it would have been rock and roll perfection. Instead, they loped out onstage for an encore which involved a lengthy, boring jam that took the wind out of the screaming crowd.
But overall, the band showed with its 90-minute long, sweaty, stripped to the waist set why their album was a hit with both critics and fans, and has been a major source of ticket sales on their current tour. The Queens of the Stone Age definitely have got what it takes to make it in the rock world: distorted guitars, power chords, power vocals, a killer rhythm section, a dash of psychedelia, and a smoking live show. Even without former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, who is being replaced by Kelly Scott for the rest of the tour, the energy was running high during the set and the Queens managed to make their presence felt.
These musicians are not afraid to stand apart.