The one where the crowd booed.
Wonderboyf and I thought about going to Soundwave but I already had tickets to see Billy Connolly. Billy was fabulous and I am in no way unhappy that we went to that instead of Soundwave. There wasn't a whole lot of bands on the line up I was keen on seeing - except Queens of the Stone Age. So Wonderboyf had bought tickets for us to see QoSA play a sideshow last night at the Enmore Theatre.
QoSA have recently re-released their first, self-titled album which apparently is a bit different to their later stuff. Wonderboyf bought their re-released album yesterday and tried to listen to as much of it as possible before heading to the concert and had commented a lot of it was more mellow than anticipated. After some complex plans we eventually found ourselves at the Enmore in time to run in to an old friend of mine from Uni and catch the last few songs of the support band. They didn't suck, but I don't remember their name, so I guess that's saying something.
So QoSA finally took to the stage. Wonderboyf and I had anticipated that we wouldn't really know a majority of their songs, but we were looking forward to hearing their hits. We were in the GA area in the front half of the floor, but we stood close to the back so we could see, hear and not be trampled by enthusiastic fans 'dancing'. When QoSA finally took to the stage, I was a little surprised - I'e never seen them live, and they certainly didn't look like I had expected them too. The lead singer (don't even know his name) looked like he should be in more of a punk band, or maybe something like the Living End. One of the guitarists looked like he should be in a goth band or Evanescence. The others were a mix of rockers and the pianist had a bit of an electro edge, or something.
I can't tell you what songs they sang, I hardly recognised any of them. And I could hardly hear them - the mix wasn't great, I could hear a wall of music but hardly anything of the singer. The first few songs, I expected them to not go overboard, but the whole set they hardly seemed to enthuse or have any energy at all. The lead singer did say they were having a great time, but I had a hard time believing that. Maybe they're too cool and thought to reserve their enthusiasm, but it's hard to have a great time watching a live band who just stand there and play/ sing their songs.
They started at 8.40pm, which is fair for a Wednesday night, I'm sure the Enmore is subject to a noise curfew during the weekday evenings. However, they finished their set at 9.35pm and hadn't played anything I knew. I expected an encore - everyone did. That's part of the problem, bands now almost always do the same thing, they finish their set, head off and then come back for an encore of their hits. Encores originally came about because fans and audiences demanded them by cheering, clapping and chanting. Now it's taken for granted that bands will encore so audiences don't really try.
Plus this one was pretty obvious. The social cues around live gigs include the fact that if the house lights stay down, the band is coming back out. The house lights were down and the roadies were out on stage re-tuning the instruments - very freaking obvious they're coming back out. So they came back on stage to clapping and some cheers - nothing tumultuous. They played a really long encore, maybe 5-6 songs, which went for nearly another hour. I did actually recognise 2-3 songs.
They finished up their encore and headed off stage after thanking the audience. The crowd had had a pretty good time. There was a guy in the balcony upstairs who had brought an inflatable guitar and brought a whole new meaning to the phrase 'air guitar'. The only thing was, they hadn't played their big song, the one everyone knows - called 'No One Knows' - it's the song we were all waiting for. The band walked off stage, the house lights stayed down and the stage lights stayed on with some background music as the roadies took to the stage again. They had given the social cues that they would be coming on again - presumably to play their one last song. We waited. The crowd clapped, stomped, yelled and whistled. I had thought to myself that it would be incredibly ostentatious if the came out for a second encore - but I was impressed that they were making the crowd work for another encore. The clapping and cheering was really impressive.
A few minutes more passed. I grew skeptical. The house lights came on. The stage working lights came on the and roadies began striking the gear on stage.
The crowed booed and jeered.
A lot.
The crowed started the clap again, the cheered every time someone walked across stage in the hopes that they were still coming back on stage. Then they started booing and jeering again.
Shitty way to end a gig. I grabbed wonderboyf and pointed out they really weren't coming back out on stage, so we left. We both agreed we were pretty disappointed in the whole gig, the performance was lack lustre, they didn't play any of their really big songs and the sound wasn't conducive to enjoying the performance any better. At least their stage dressing was interesting - fabric with enlarged blue prints of the JFK assassination.
So, I saw the Queens of the Stone Age. Tick it off the list and not bother again.
QoSA have recently re-released their first, self-titled album which apparently is a bit different to their later stuff. Wonderboyf bought their re-released album yesterday and tried to listen to as much of it as possible before heading to the concert and had commented a lot of it was more mellow than anticipated. After some complex plans we eventually found ourselves at the Enmore in time to run in to an old friend of mine from Uni and catch the last few songs of the support band. They didn't suck, but I don't remember their name, so I guess that's saying something.
So QoSA finally took to the stage. Wonderboyf and I had anticipated that we wouldn't really know a majority of their songs, but we were looking forward to hearing their hits. We were in the GA area in the front half of the floor, but we stood close to the back so we could see, hear and not be trampled by enthusiastic fans 'dancing'. When QoSA finally took to the stage, I was a little surprised - I'e never seen them live, and they certainly didn't look like I had expected them too. The lead singer (don't even know his name) looked like he should be in more of a punk band, or maybe something like the Living End. One of the guitarists looked like he should be in a goth band or Evanescence. The others were a mix of rockers and the pianist had a bit of an electro edge, or something.
I can't tell you what songs they sang, I hardly recognised any of them. And I could hardly hear them - the mix wasn't great, I could hear a wall of music but hardly anything of the singer. The first few songs, I expected them to not go overboard, but the whole set they hardly seemed to enthuse or have any energy at all. The lead singer did say they were having a great time, but I had a hard time believing that. Maybe they're too cool and thought to reserve their enthusiasm, but it's hard to have a great time watching a live band who just stand there and play/ sing their songs.
They started at 8.40pm, which is fair for a Wednesday night, I'm sure the Enmore is subject to a noise curfew during the weekday evenings. However, they finished their set at 9.35pm and hadn't played anything I knew. I expected an encore - everyone did. That's part of the problem, bands now almost always do the same thing, they finish their set, head off and then come back for an encore of their hits. Encores originally came about because fans and audiences demanded them by cheering, clapping and chanting. Now it's taken for granted that bands will encore so audiences don't really try.
Plus this one was pretty obvious. The social cues around live gigs include the fact that if the house lights stay down, the band is coming back out. The house lights were down and the roadies were out on stage re-tuning the instruments - very freaking obvious they're coming back out. So they came back on stage to clapping and some cheers - nothing tumultuous. They played a really long encore, maybe 5-6 songs, which went for nearly another hour. I did actually recognise 2-3 songs.
They finished up their encore and headed off stage after thanking the audience. The crowd had had a pretty good time. There was a guy in the balcony upstairs who had brought an inflatable guitar and brought a whole new meaning to the phrase 'air guitar'. The only thing was, they hadn't played their big song, the one everyone knows - called 'No One Knows' - it's the song we were all waiting for. The band walked off stage, the house lights stayed down and the stage lights stayed on with some background music as the roadies took to the stage again. They had given the social cues that they would be coming on again - presumably to play their one last song. We waited. The crowd clapped, stomped, yelled and whistled. I had thought to myself that it would be incredibly ostentatious if the came out for a second encore - but I was impressed that they were making the crowd work for another encore. The clapping and cheering was really impressive.
A few minutes more passed. I grew skeptical. The house lights came on. The stage working lights came on the and roadies began striking the gear on stage.
The crowed booed and jeered.
A lot.
The crowed started the clap again, the cheered every time someone walked across stage in the hopes that they were still coming back on stage. Then they started booing and jeering again.
Shitty way to end a gig. I grabbed wonderboyf and pointed out they really weren't coming back out on stage, so we left. We both agreed we were pretty disappointed in the whole gig, the performance was lack lustre, they didn't play any of their really big songs and the sound wasn't conducive to enjoying the performance any better. At least their stage dressing was interesting - fabric with enlarged blue prints of the JFK assassination.
So, I saw the Queens of the Stone Age. Tick it off the list and not bother again.