How the Queens of the Stone Age played the most underground gig of all time
Music and the environment are far more married than you might think. As David Byrne explains: “In a sense, the space, the platform, and the software ‘makes’ the art, the music, or whatever. After something succeeds, more venues of a similar size and shape are built to accommodate more production of the same. After a while, the form of the work that predominates in these spaces is taken for granted—of course, we mainly hear symphonies in symphony halls.” Josh Homme knew this more than most.
His first band, Kyuss, manifested their outside-of-the-mainstream rock status by throwing parties in the desert. This spawned desert rock. However, this label didn’t pertain simply to where they were playing geographically. In other words, this wasn’t simply ordinary rock played in Palm Springs. Nada, a new genre, was born because the geography of the area itself impacted the band’s sound as the mountains miles in the distance created feedback, so the band had to slow down to a sludgy pace to maintain rhythm.
So, in some ways, Homme became the pioneer of a new genre. When Kyuss fizzled out and he moved on to Queens of the Stone Age, he decided to see whether magic could strike twice. This time, rather than seeing what effects the desert might have, Homme and his band travelled to Sondershausen, Germany, and they put on the most underground concert of all time.
For the deepest gig world record, the band descended 2,300 feet underground into a salt mine where 300 people in hardhats were able to enjoy their Era Valgaris sound back in 2007. This echoey chamber created a primordial sense of awe, and, in many ways, it genuinely brought rock back to its Stone Age roots.
In 4000BC the caves of Malta, or more specifically the so-called Oracle Chambers, were the sites of many things, but perhaps most notably, man’s first raves. The structure of these caves were chiselled and honed to a metaphysical intent. While studies and tests by white-lab-coat-clad scientists might have brought validity to theories in recent times, the boom and aura of such spaces are self-evident. It just so happens that our ancient ancestors picked out places with acoustic properties that even The Royal Albert Hall could only dream of, and they put them to good use.
Thus, the Queens of the Stone Age were being true to their name. The show was not just a gimmick but further interplay from Homme between cool places and the cool sounds they prove conducive to.
The world was just to see this 2007 show thanks to a concert film, but sadly, following the band’s split from Interscope Records, the recording never came to fruition. However, we’ve contacted Interscope to see whether there’s any hope that more than the 300 people present will ever see the show.
