By Megan Moss

Date / Venue: Thursday July 13th, 2017 - Logan Campbell Centre, Auckland

I’m pretty sure the warmest place in New Zealand last night was lying in a freezer, regardless; the masses were out in full force to see heavyweights Queens of the Stone Age kick off their world tour Villains at the sold-out Logan Campbell Centre.

Later in the night Josh would talk about just how much he & the band really love New Zealand and share some past experiences at past festivals; explaining that he didn’t usually have anything nice to say….. he REALLY loves it here! Always goes down nice to hear bands share a little tale or two about our homeland.

Kicking off their set with ‘My God Is the Sun’ the audience by this point were getting knickers in a knot, seeming to start pulsing with excitement and beginning to boiling over with singing shoulder perches and crowd surfers. So when the band kicked into it there was a fever in the air.

Keeping the pace up all night, Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme (Vocals/Guitar), Troy Van Leeuwen (Guitar), Dean Ferita (Guitar), Michal Shuman (Bass), Jon Theodore (Drums), are all great musicians with ties to other excellent bands such as Kyuss and Them Crooked Vultures, sauntered on stage. With an Elvis like drawl from Josh, the entire band all still looking exceptional cool, their musicianship and experience laid out plain to see and hear. A killer set-list of all the hits made this a pretty dam fine concert experience for me.

A little later in the night (from my vantage point) Josh did start to look like he was struggling a with a sore throat, however no one would’ve really noticed as he proclaimed that he was losing his voice a little, they moved on with some newer material that he warned was “really really long”. Half way through in a mint break we got a “I don’t really give a shit, I’m just going to go with it anyway”. With the audience cheering him on madly, they played on. It was crunchy, grindy and all a bit awesome!

For those who know the Logan Campbell Centre, the size is great however (I do wonder if they would’ve been better at an arena, next time please); the sound can be dubious as all hell. Whether that’s a mix problem, a venue layout or both, I’m unsure. And it’s probably my only complaint from the night. There were a few times where vocals were a bit drowned out, instruments scratchy (this could have something to do where I was standing but let’s face it you want a concert to sound great and this could’ve been better). But my concert experience certainly wasn’t ruined and I was totally bummed when the band thanked the audience & said their goodbyes.

All in all, a great concert kicking off the tour here in little ole New Zealand (we are lucky), thank-you to the band for another fab concert, you totally rocked it, see you again soon!

SetList

1. My God Is the Sun

2. Monsters in The Parasol

3. Feel Good Hit of The Summer

4. No One Knows

5. Smooth Sailing

6. Burn the Witch

7. Misfit Love

8. The Way You Used to Do

9. If I Had A Tail

10. The Vampyre Of Time and Memory

11. Make It Wit Chu