Newspapers / Brevard College Student Newspaper / Sept. 28, 2007, edition 1 / Page 8
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The Clarion | September 28, 2007 — Arts&Life Queens of the Stone Age lack dynamics by Zack Harding Arts & Life Editor The Queens of the Stone Age performed to a capacity crowd at the Orange Peel this past Monday the 24*, but I left less than impressed. The Queens of the Stone Age are a hard hitting band from California who have gained some notoriety for their clever, yet straight-ahead hard-rock sound. They have received a good amount of radio airplay with hits such as “Little Sister” and especially the quirky “No One Knows” which featured some top notch drumming by Dave Grohl. Unfortunately, those catchy tunes come across much worse live. There is a lot to be said about how a band approaches their live mix and sound, and The Queens have one of the worst live sounds that I have ever heard. They were far too loud for the small little venue that the Orange Peel is, creating an almost unbearable experience. With three guitarists on stage all playing extremely loud at the same time, the group’s dynamics were terrible. Every song was one great big wall of distorted, indefinable guitar after another This wasn’t helped by the fact that lead man Josh Homme seems to be a rather limited song writer Their were two basic song structures that they played, one being a cacophonous mix of indistinguishable power chords and the other being one that started with a really cool Jimmy Page-ish style riff which was beaten into repetitive hell for the next five minutes. This isn’t to say that their wasn’t a song or two that was fairly enjoyable, especially when the band took a rare moment to play a little bit quieter. When the band actually got into a restrained groove it was at least mediocre, though the chord thrashing was never too far away. Photo courtesy of qotsa.com Also, Homme should be commended on his voice which has a real ethereal quality to it. His vocals are pretty, haunting, and sometimes humorous. The vocals were the one true saving grace in the midst of the ridiculously loud guitar Ultimately The Queens of the Stone Age have a real problem with dynamics, as 90% of their performance was at the same level, which was way too loud. Would a quieter mix do more justice to their songs, who knows? I am not going to put forth much effort to find out. Live music at tlie Grey Eagle Sept. 28th - The Barrel House Mammas Oct. 3rd - Scott Miller and Commonwealth Oct 7th - Mad Teas Party and Luminescent Orchestrii Rodent Hottie Spotlight Name: Nutty the Squirrel Class: Mammalia Favorite Activities: Storing nuts, eating nuts, pretty much anything hav ing to do with nuts Favorite Subject: Astrophysics Arch-Nemesis: Flying Squirrel Occupation: Unemployed, thanks to that damn Tommy Twister It
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