Them Crooked Vultures - win tix

[Northern Wish]

Whitey, you will love this show- its everything you like about the big rock shows.....

[phishtaper]

Whitey, you will love this show- its everything you like about the big rock shows.....

and more ...

[phishtaper]

two very different reviews ...

Them Crooked Vultures wow but also weary Air Canada Centre crowd

The supergroup’s one-upmanship was impressive but didn’t make for a scintillating show

There’s certainly no small amount of pleasure to be derived from watching Them Crooked Vultures in action, but at the end of the day Them Crooked Vultures are really only about one thing: pleasing themselves.

A “supergroup†in the classic ’70s sense, this genetically superior power trio composed of Queens of the Stone Age front man Josh Homme, head Foo Fighter and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl and gentlemanly Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones is easily forgiven its tendencies towards self-indulgence and showing off. These are three of the most technically accomplished and respected rock musicians on the planet, after all, so a certain degree of friendly one-upmanship in the unstated interest of showing every other band on the planet how it’s done is to be expected.

Does it make for a scintillating arena show, though? Hell, no. As dazzling and audibly enthusiastic as the playing was for the duration of Them Crooked Vultures’ 105-minute performance at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday night, the end effect was actually quite wearying.

It wasn’t the fault of the band, either. If you’d listened to the Vultures’ rangy, self-titled debut at all going in — and I’m not sure how much of this crowd, which in large part appeared to have been lured in by the “102.1 the Edge Presents . . . †banner, had — you knew this wasn’t going to be an evening of pop hits. And had all the endless psychedelic-metal wankery gone down in a club, as it did when Them Crooked Vultures played Sound Academy last year, the options would have been there either to fully immerse oneself in observing the electric interplay between everyone onstage, or to check out periodically and grab a drink at the bar when the going got a bit too noodly.

As it stood, though, most of us were stuck at least the length of a hockey rink away from all the action, deprived of even the ACC’s $12 beers half an hour into the show thanks to this city’s idiotic liquor laws, surrounded by drunken loudmouths who only bothered to shut up and pay half-attention to “New Fang†and “Dead End Friends†and forced to pick out the separate parts within a depressingly hollow (albeit very, very loud) sound mix that buried Homme’s vocals and Jones’s uncannily nimble bass work for most of the night.

This didn’t mean Them Crooked Vultures didn’t get off a few “wow†moments. Anchored by Grohl’s superhuman disco backbeat, “Gunman†offered some blistering early-set swagger and plenty of gnarly duelling-guitar riffage from Homme and touring guitarist Alain Johannes. The bone-rattling, “Kashmirâ€-like midsection to “Bandoliers†was a study in mathematically precise battery, switching time signatures and tempos with awe-inspiring rapidity. Roiling psych epics like “Elephants†and “Spinning in Daffodils†accomplished their “journey to the centre of your mind†missions quite handily if you just sank into the light show and blocked out everything that was wrong about the venue. And you really got the sense that “Warsaw or the First Breath You Take After You Give Up†would have rampaged on for many, many more minutes had the 11 p.m. curfew not finally forced Homme, Jones, Grohl and Johannes to hang up the longest jam of an evening long on long jams.

They were all having fun, it was clear. We wished we were having more.

Them Crooked Vultures adds up to much more than its parts

The group of star musicians boogied' date=' brooded and soared

Them Crooked Vultures

Air Canada Centre

Toronto, Saturday May 15

What looks promising on paper, these so-called super groups of star musicians, means nothing until the fancy components come together for real. Them Crooked Vultures, the heavy rock unit comprised of Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters and Nirvana), Joshua Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), seeks to mess with the numbers, making a case that one plus one plus one equals something more than three. Hitting the stage at Air Canada Centre – the fourth of five Ontario and Quebec dates that kicked off a North American tour – the Vultures charged like a brainy light brigade through the thrill-ride hard-rock blues of its self-titled debut album, leaving a head-swirling audience to do the math.

[b']Homme Sweet Homme

Halfway into the night, the long, tall charismatic Californian presented the band (which included the excellent second guitarist Alain Johannes), closing off the introductions with: “And you know me, I’m Joshua. “ If the large amount of Zeppelin fans in the audience didn’t know Homme at the start of the show (opening with the swaggering and sexy riff-rock of No One Loves Me & Neither Do I) they knew him by the end. The singer-guitarist writes the trio’s lyrics, and his signature staccato rhythms and muscularity are all over the material. His New Fang, with its rock ’n’ roll hoochie koo chorus, had teeth. On the multi-part Elephants which boogied, lumbered, brooded and raced, he used his gloomy voice register – he does a falsetto thing too – to hold the beast together. His guitar solos were tight and tasty, sometimes adding keranging noise for effect. After the drugged-out queerness of Interlude With Ludes, he wiped his brow and said this: “That song is bizarre, even I know that.â€

He Got the Led Out

On Interlude With Ludes, the open-minded Jones struck memorable Johnny Nash notes on a keytar. On No One Loves Me & Neither Do I he manipulated an open-tuned slide guitar in a peculiar fashion. On the Kentucky blues of You Can't Possibly Begin To Imagine he began on fiddle and ended hitting saloon-style chords on an electric piano. And, yes, he played bass – eventfully, in an almost lead-style as he countered Homme’s staggered chords. The multi-instrumentalist’s best moment was Caligulove, where his organ sounds brought a kind of castle-majesty to a brutish, turgid rocker. At the end of the night, Jones received the biggest hand, but, no offence, the heartiest round of congrats should have gone to the drummer with the beard and long hair.

He Grohls on You

This guy was the power plant – a back-beat hitting, double-fisted dynamo. As the front man for Foo Fighters, Grohl takes criticism from some quarters for his overly affable stage chatter. On drums, in the back row, he’s the opposite: An industrious timekeeper, purposefully mute. The Vultures songs are credited to all three members, but the collaboration seems to be more of Jones-Homme thing. Grohl was the one who brought the two together in the first place, though, and now he keeps it going as one of the most listenable kick-drummers in the business.

Super Is as Super Does

Not even counting Johannes, whose blues-solo interlude blew my mind and made Eric Clapton irrelevant, the Vultures added up superbly. These guys bang heads with imagination to spare, and the talk of a second album indicates this is an ongoing project. Super news, that.

I guess I'm somewhere in between.