Them Crooked Vultures 11.17.09 | Wiltern Theatre | Los Angeles, CA by Sir Shaun Christie photos by M'Lou Elkins/www.skip2photography.com I don’t normally do pre-sale ticket orders on Ticketbastard but occasionally a band comes around that you know you have to see and you know everyone else will want to see also. And as I entered the Wiltern Theatre on Tuesday it was pretty obvious the show was a sell out and I had been correct in my assumptions. Yet another super group has formed but this one with a pretty high pedigree in the world of rock, compared to say ‘Tinted Windows’. Them Crooked Vultures consists of Josh Homme, Dave Grohl, and John Paul Jones. If I have to tell you what their other bands are then you really should stop reading this and go educate yourself in rock music. The band took to the stage promptly and to general mass hysteria that you only hear when rocks' finest walk onto a stage filled with musical equipment. They wasted no time in opening with ‘No One Loves Me & Neither Do I’ - a yin/yang rock song. It starts out as pretty standard fair and comparable to anything on the last Queens of the Stone Age album. But then 2 and a half minutes into the song, that riff kicks in……..
Let’s talk about that riff for a minute. It’s the kind of guitar riff everyone who has ever played air guitar imagines they are playing. It’s a dirty behemoth of a riff and as John Paul Jones played the bass he was sliding his whole hand down the guitar as if to wipe the dirt from his strings due to the utterly filthy dirt encrusted riff they were pummeling out. Speaking of pummeling, Dave Grohl is an animal. While the rest of the gang put on nice shirts and ties etc... Dave came out in his sleeveless t-shirt, hair everywhere, tattoo’s showing. He looked like a cross between Cousin It and Animal from Muppet Show. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Josh Homme lead him out by a chain then leash him to the drum kit.
Another crowd pleasing master class in rock 101 was ‘Elephants,’ a definite choice for the next single if the audience reception is anything to go by. The band also made a point of showcasing the talent they had on stage. In the song ‘Scumbag Blues” John Paul Jones and Dave Grohl had a great little bass & drum solo which elicited many whoops and hollers from the masses. Certainly the unsung hero of the bunch was Alain Johannes who ably kept pace with the rock messiahs. Whether it was his blues finger picking or slide guitar skills, the man is clearly a great musician and deserves his spot on that stage.
The WTF moment of the night goes to that bossa nova random tune that is ‘Interludes with Ludes’. Not only did Josh put down his guitar but he also engaged in bizarre dance moves; for a moment I felt like I was at a Morrissey concert. As if that was not strange enough, John Paul Jones played a keytar. A FUCKING KEYTAR!!! You could see a look on the faces of people asking: what the hell just happened. A rather special moment I enjoyed was at the end of the set before the encore. John Paul Jones played a surprisingly beautiful outro on the piano which had the entire crowd and the gentlemen on stage utterly hypnotized.
It was not a flawless set, as the band only has one album to pick from. A few songs just seemed overly long and it a bit too much like a Josh Homme self indulgence affair. The tracks that do bring the noise though are of a thoroughbred quality that can only be achieved by years of living and breathing rock at its finest. If they were a new band of unknowns I would probably tip them to go on to do great things, but as it stands, they already have. Check out our full set of Them Crooked Vultures concert photos. Watch John Paul Jones' keytar action and Homme's bizarre dance moves on "Interludes With Ludes"...of course we got a clip!