These days, there are few rock bands that can sell out a gig in mere minutes. Fewer still can inspire ticket-holding fans to line up four blocks from the venue before doors open, and even fewer can inspire such anticipation that audience members will heckle the opening act before they even start. But the House of Blues in Boston played host to no ordinary band on Sunday night, nor even an ordinary supergroup. With nary a single to their name, Them Crooked Vultures brought their first-ever tour to Boston and stunned the audience with a lean, mean set of never-before-heard songs.
The hype is understandable, of course. With a lineup consisting of Josh Homme, (guitarist and singer for Queens of the Stone Age), Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters guitarist and singer, Nirvana drummer) and John Paul Jones (bassist of Led Zeppelin), the band has already cemented its place in rock history simply by existing. But not every super-group is a Crosby, Stills & Nash, and indeed, results are frequently mixed. Fans can breathe easy, though, because the veteran musicians that make up Them Crooked Vultures have crafted some of the most dynamic and satisfying hard rock tunes in ages and play together with astounding chemistry.
A deafening roar greeted the band as it walked on stage, with members grinning from ear to ear. Immediately they launched into "Elephants," a blazing number with an extremely catchy riff that whipped the crowd into a frenzy. Building on this momentum, they frontloaded the set with a string of massive head-banging songs. "Scumbag Blues" was a standout: While Grohl and Jones sang backup vocals, Jones improvised a classic blues bassline, and Homme crooned in falsetto over some indelible guitar licks, together sounding like a modern version of Eric Clapton's seminal super-group Cream. They later explored pulsating, rhythmic grooves with disco-stomp beats and heavily textured "Kashmir"-style arrangements. They even ended the set with a sprawling progressive-rock odyssey containing multiple movements and motifs. Every song was a slick surprise, with various time signatures, tempo and key changes sprinkled in, executed with a precision far beyond most modern rock bands.
As a rhythm section, Grohl and Jones make a thunderous pair. Grohl may strap on a guitar when he plays with Foo Fighters, but it is abundantly clear that his true home is behind the drum set. As he hammered away at the skins all night with the intensity of the Muppet drummer Animal, he displayed an impressive array of beats and fills, never showing off but always driving the songs forward. Jones played with an incredible tightness and musicality that can only come from decades of experience and served as the musical backbone for the entire group. Rounding out the Vultures, Homme's smooth voice and loose, improvisational guitar playing complemented the band in an entirely unique way.
Them Crooked Vultures don't suffer from a clash of egos and muddled influences — it's clear that the primary songwriting force is Homme, and the best frame of reference for this new batch of songs is the discography of his band, Queens of the Stone Age (QOTSA). From the hard-hitting riffs of QOTSA's "Songs for the Deaf" (2002) to the pop influences of "Lullabies to Paralyze" (2005) and the unconventional bridges and harmonic left turns of "Era Vulgaris" (2007), there's plenty of variety, and his stamp is all over the material.
At the same time, it also sounds like nothing Homme has ever done. Perhaps it is the readily apparent joy he derives from playing with some of rock's greatest musicians — who all shared his enthusiasm on stage — as well as the fresh creative input from their different backgrounds. Not all of the songs were received well by the crowd, as Homme noted: "If you don't like some of these songs, just drink a little faster." But in the crucible of live performance, the hit/miss ratio for the new band playing entirely original material was surprisingly strong, with only two or three songs that didn't quite click — a good sign indeed for the forthcoming album, reportedly due out on Interscope Records before the end of the year.
Them Crooked Vultures seem to have achieved the impossible. Not only have they lived up to the overwhelming hype surrounding their project, but they have also defied expectations, debuting a killer batch of fresh-sounding, original material while establishing themselves as a hard-hitting live band. Clearly, the reports of rock and roll's death have been greatly exaggerated.
