Them Crooked Vultures - the supergroup consisting of Queen's of the Stone Age's Josh Homme, Foo Fighter Dave Grohl and Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones - debuted their live show at a tiny 1,100 seat Metro theatre in Chicago last night. (Pic: Joseph Mohan)

Were you there? No, only a thin slip of humanity were able to gain access to the show, but fortunately Chicago Sun-Times writer Jim DeRogatis was on hand and able to suggest, with great understatement, the gist of the new band (via Chicago Sun-Times):

During an amazing 12-song, 80-minute set, Them Crooked Vultures went on to prove it is one the rarest things in rock: a supergroup that not only deserves that appellation, but which actually is greater than the sum of its storied parts.

Woah, hang on. So he's saying that the band is better than Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss, and Foo Fighters put together? Pretty big call Jim. Though with suggestions that Homme's best band Kyuss' influences shine through greater than the QOTSA vibe (despite the band being augmented by QOTSA guitarist/keyboardist Alain Johannes) does make the "full-body hard-rock experience" sound promising. As does this take on Grohl's contribution to anyone that's ever seen him play a fill:

One of the hardest-hitting percussionists of his generation, Grohl seemed even more intense in this setting than he'd been during his stint with the Queens, hammering his snare with both hands to create a massive backbeat, firing off rapid fire single-stroke rolls that made his single bass drum sound like two, and playing long and complicated fills between hi-hat, snare and rack tom without ever losing the songs' propulsive drive.

Yes please. A few clips have surfaced from the show, and while they're of uniformly horrible sound quality, you do get the gist.





Bass solo, anyone?



DeRogatis closes by saying there's still no official LP release date (or album title, despite Rolling Stone saying it'll be called Never Deserved the Future, which the promo vid (fake?) below seems to back up), but when it does arrive he thinks it'll live up to the hype. Mostly:
If the Metro show was any indication, the disc should be a stunner. The band presumably played the entire album--there was no encore--and only one song fell flat: "Interlude w/ Ludes," an alien lounge tune that found Jones on keytar and Homme putting down his ax to slink around the stage like an unholy combination of Dean Martin and Tom Jones. Them Crooked Vultures set list:
 
Elephants
New Fang
Scumbag Blues
Dead End Friends
Bandoliers
Mind Eraser (No Chaser)
Gunman
Daffodils
Interlude w/ Ludes
Caligulove
Warsaw
Nobody Loves Me

(Pic by Joseph Mohan)