Queens Of The Stone Age Photos from Las Vegas
Queens Of The Stone Age performed at The Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV on February 13, 2014. Photographer Erik Kabik was on hand to get these shots.
Photo Credit: © Erik Kabik/ Retna/ erikkabik.com
About Queens Of The Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age is an American rock band from Palm Desert, California, United States, formed in 1996. The band’s line-up includes founder Josh Homme (lead vocals, guitar, piano), alongside longtime members Troy Van Leeuwen (guitar, lap steel, keyboard, percussion, backing vocals), Michael Shuman (bass guitar, keyboard, backing vocals), Dean Fertita (keyboards, guitar, percussion, backing vocals), and recent addition Jon Theodore (drums, percussion).
Formed after the dissolution of Homme’s previous band, Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age developed a style of riff-oriented, heavy rock music. Their sound has since evolved to incorporate a variety of different styles and influences, including working with ZZ Top member Billy Gibbons and steady contributor Mark Lanegan.
Throughout its career the band has been described as alternative rock, stoner rock, and alternative metal, among several other genres. Homme has described the band’s self-titled debut album as driving music, angular and recorded dry, with the album featuring solid and repetitive riffs in its song structure. Rolling Stone magazine also noted a “connection between American meat-and-potatoes macho rock of the early 1970s, like Blue Cheer and Grand Funk Railroad, and the precision-timing drones in German rock of the same period”.
The band’s following album – Rated R – contained a wider variety of instruments, several recording guests and lead vocals shared by Homme, Oliveri and Lanegan. Homme has also commented that “Our first record announced our sound. This one added that we’re different and weird.” The band continued to experiment on their third album Songs for the Deaf, which also featured a line-up including three lead vocalists, many guest appearances and wide range of instrumentation including horn and string sections. Homme has described Lullabies to Paralyze as a “dark” album, which includes imagery inspired by The Brothers Grimm folk and fairy tales.
In 2005 Homme explained, “Where the poetry seems to be is when you start in the dark and reach for the light — that’s what makes it not depressing to me…” The album changed gears from the band’s previous distinct “driving” sound, much due to the departure of longtime member Nick Oliveri. The band almost exclusively used semi hollow body guitars during the making of the record. With Era Vulgaris the band continued to develop their signature sound with more dance-oriented elements and electronic influences, while Homme has currently gone back to being the only lead vocalist in the band and uses more distinct vocal melodies. – Wikipedia
