Queens of the Stone Age, Phantogram & The Armed
August 4, 2023
Budweiser Stage, Toronto, ON
Canadian Beats Passport
Alternative rock band Queens of the Stone Age came to Toronto on August 4th to play one of their only Canadian dates on their new “The End Is Nero Tour” at the Budweiser Stage. The group is currently on the road in support of their latest album titled In Times New Roman… which was released in June. Queens of the Stone Age brought a few guests along with them as opening acts which were the thrash rock band from Detroit called The Armed and the electro-rock band Phantogram from New York State.
The concert featured a special Queens of the Stone Age tailgate party called “Queens Colosseum” that started a few hours before the doors opened at the venue. The pre-party would feature a very festive environment with local vendors for food and other merchandise items. Some other activities that took place at the mini-festival were live tattooing, tarot card reading, a vintage clothing market, rides, and game stands. It was something a little extra for the QOTSA fans to enjoy and a reason to come to early to the show. Perhaps the band is testing the waters on putting their own festival brand together but we will see in the future how it pans out.
The first band scheduled to hit the stage was the hard-hitting American rock group The Armed. This thrash/metal group would bring significant energy to the venue and the crowd that was still in the process of filing in given the 7 PM start time. The lead singer of The Armed, Tony Wolski wasted no time getting things going as during the second song he would jump the guard rail and venture into the crowd intent on starting his own mosh pit. Tony would be successful while creating a circle in the standing room audience and induced some slam dancing with the crowd that wanted to participate in the action. If I had to compare The Armed to another band I would have to compare them to the Australian rock band IDLES as I see a lot of similarities in their musical style and live presentation. The lone female band member Cara Drolshagen would wear all pink tights possibly to channel energy from the new Barbie movie currently in theaters. Queens of the Stone Age and The Armed are no strangers to each other as guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen played a few live shows with The Armed during 2021-2022.
The second and final opening act of the night was the electronic-rock band Phantogram who call New York home which is just across Lake Ontario. Phantogram hasn’t released a new album since 2020 so it’s safe to suspect that a new project must be close to the surface after two years of lockdown. The two-piece band did, however, release a new single in 2023 titled “Black Out Days” which isn’t associated with any project at this time but was on the set list on this night. This group is known for its trip-hop-infused songs and is still riding high from their 2016 album titled “Three” which did very well in the charts. A lot of the band’s hit singles would be on the menu in Toronto such as “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore” and “Run Run Blood”. Phantogram typically records as a musical duo while in the studio but when playing live they have added two additional members.
Queens of the Stone Age would hit the stage for the main event as scheduled at 9 o’clock sharp to thunderous applause from the sold-out crowd at the Budweiser Stage. Many of the concertgoers had already been at the earlier tailgate party and had been waiting patiently for the band’s first appearance in Toronto in many years. This latest album and corresponding tour marks the first of which in about 5 years for the band since the ‘Villans world tour’ back in 2018. The rock group has had many lineup changes over the course of its 25-year history first rising to prominence in the early 2000s when Dave Grohl and Nick Oliveri helped bring the band to the forefront of alternative music. One of my personal favorite past band members is the late Mark Lanegan who saw a brief tenure in QOTSA as backing vocals but has always remained good friends with lead singer Josh Homme since Mark helped Josh get his start in the 1990s while playing in The Screaming Trees. The current lineup that would take the stage in Toronto in 2023 would be Troy Van Leeuwen, Dean Fertita, Michael Shuman, Jon Theodore, and of course lead singer Josh Homme.
A few minutes before the band took to the stage the old song “smile” by Peggy Lee could be heard playing over the venue’s sound system which I suspect is being used as the performance intro track played on this tour. QOTSA would hit the stage hard as the first song of the night would be their biggest single of all time “No One Knows” which seemed to set the crowd on fire. I specifically remember hearing the crowd behind me singing the famous riff of the song while I was in the media pit shooting. Seeing how this tour is to promote the latest album In Times New Roman… it would only be right that the band play some new music for the fans such as “Negative Space”, “Paper Machete” and “Emotion Sickness”. The performance in Toronto would conclude with the hit singles “Go with the Flow” and “A Song for the Dead.” Queens of the Stone Age are one of the few real rock & roll bands left that still produces new music and have been on a tear since playing Pink Pop and Glastonbury earlier this summer. The band will continue touring in North America over the next month and is scheduled to play in Europe throughout November so I highly recommend checking out their show when they come to your area.
