IN CONCERT
What: Queens of the Stone Age with Eagles of Death Metal
When: Monday, 8 p.m. (doors at 7)
Where: Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, 1925 Blanshard St.
Tickets: $49.50, $59.50, and $69.50 at , , the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre Box Office or 250-220-7777
Queens of the Stone Age will perform in Victoria next week, and until recently, the story around these parts was the fact that our modest, 7,000-seat arena was part of a tour consisting of much larger rooms.
That narrative changed, however, after the band鈥檚 performance in Los Angeles on Dec. 9, when frontman Josh Homme kicked the camera of an accredited photographer hard enough that it damaged her face and sent her to hospital. Video footage of the kick uploaded by the shooter, Chelsea Lauren, was posted to Instagram hours after the incident, and shows the 6鈥�5鈥� Homme kicking the camera-toting Lauren.
Victoria鈥檚 concert on Monday will be the band鈥檚 first since the now-infamous Los Angeles appearance, and the first on-stage appearance by Homme.
After the concert, the haggard-looking singer-guitarist quickly released a video apologizing for his actions. When that failed to stem a rising tide of opposition to the group, Homme released a second apology video. Celebrity supporters of the group, including TV host Anthony Bourdain, who is good friends with Homme, publicly denounced through Twitter the singer鈥檚 actions and 鈥渨eak-ass apology.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 where you stand when the people you care about and admire do awful things that matters,鈥� Bourdain said shortly after the incident, via his Twitter feed. 鈥淜eeping [your] head down and hoping it goes away? No.鈥�
In the apology video, Homme said: 鈥淚鈥檓 going to have to figure out some stuff, I think.鈥�
鈥淚 want to be a good man, but I think last night, I definitely failed at that.鈥�
Soon after, the band鈥檚 previously scheduled Dec. 14 appearance on The Ellen Degeneres Show was cancelled.
Homme, 44, and his hard-rock band have kept a relatively low profile since the incident, with fans wondering if time in a rehabilitation facility was in order for the Palm Desert, California, native.
Management for the band denied the sa国际传媒鈥檚 request for an interview, saying the band was not doing media interviews at this time.
It was a disappointing end to what was an otherwise excellent year for the Los Angeles band. Villains, studio album No. 7 from the No One Knows hitmakers, was a critical and commercial success.
After its release, the record debuted on the sales charts at 聽No. 1 in sa国际传媒 and No. 3 in the U.S. It eventually wound up on best-of 2017 lists for Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly and NME, among other publications, and earned the band its seventh career Grammy Award nomination in the rock category.
As part of an earlier tour to support Villains, the band headlined Madison Square Garden for the first time in its 20-year career, a testament to its reputation as one of the biggest rock bands of this generation.
Villains created new buzz, thanks in part to the sonic influence of Adele producer Mark Ronson, who helmed Villains in the studio. Homme said Ronson鈥檚 influence resulted in a sound that prompted his band to delve deeper into rhythm and groove.
鈥淚 think maybe music people might not understand the vast overlap of the curves between Ronson and Queens,鈥� Homme said during an interview last summer with Rolling Stone. He鈥檚 joined in the group by guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen, keyboardist Dean Fertita, bassist Michael Shuman and drummer Jon Theodore.
鈥淚f you listen to Uptown Funk [Ronson鈥檚 collaboration with Bruno Mars], you hear that tight, kind of vacuous dry sound, and that鈥檚 where I wanted to take this new Queens record.鈥�
Earlier recordings by the group fell under the stoner-rock umbrella, a tag that referenced the band鈥檚 long, psychedelic passages and heavy, distorted guitars. Queens of the Stone Age eventually outgrew the handle, and with Ronson鈥檚 help, entered a new realm of rocking.
Though groups of Queens of the Stone Age鈥檚 stature often do not include Victoria on their concert calendars, the band has a history with the city, dating back to a 1999 performance at what is now Distrikt nightclub. The group also performed at the former strip/punk club Icehouse, before graduating to the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre for a concert in 2008.
The band will stage its return next week with close friends Eagles of Death Metal, a group Homme is credited with co-founding, as the opening act. He was not present in 2015 when that band鈥檚 concert at the Bataclan nightclub in Paris became the scene of a terrorist attack, but Homme was greatly affected by the incident. The attack resulted in the deaths of 89 people, including the group鈥檚 merchandise manager.
鈥淚t affected the way I did everything,鈥� Homme told Rolling Stone.
鈥淚t reinforced that you shouldn鈥檛 wait to do something or you鈥檒l f---ing regret it. Move now. If you have a beef with someone, squash it. If you want to do something, do it.鈥�
