Photos and a review of Queens of the Stone Age at Massey Hall in Toronto

[Stephanie Snape covered things for us with both the photos and the review. – AC]

Sunday night, the red lights that read “Massey Hall” glowed bright against the faces of the people lined up, waiting eagerly for the doors to open. As security moved into place and people were allowed in, the voices of excited fans grew louder around me. It was the night that people had been waiting all week for, the Queens of the Stone Age show. 

Inside the venue, artist merch and drink stands were the first stop before fans took their seats in the centuries old building. Low light made the velvet seats shimmer as the masses slowly rolled in, preparing for a night of fantastic music and theatrical antics. 

The show started with Paris Jackson, yes, that Paris Jackson, in a paired-back knit sweater and jeans. She took her place center stage and picked up her guitar. She was reserved, talking about how she was here to sing about heartbreak before launching into the opening verse of her new song ‘Maker’ a melancholic song about wanting to meet her maker tied in with themes of wanting to escape from a broken situation. 

She went on to talk about how the audience’s rapt silence made her uneasy, and how as the opener she was used to people talking over her. A few people shouted encouraging phrases at her that made her smile before she thumbed the cords of her guitar and began her next new song ‘Happiest Day of My Life’. 

While she only played a short set, her presence on the Massey Hall stage will not soon be forgotten. 

As the house lights dimmed for the second and final time that evening, the audience began to murmur, excited anticipation about the sold out show. Everyone wondered if this was going to be anything like the last Queens of the Stone Age show they saw. The last time they played Toronto was in 2023, at Budweiser Stage on their “The End Is Nero Tour.” For fans that have seen them previously, I can assure you this was quite the set list shake up. 

Their show was broken into three acts, Act 1, which was full of deep cuts and melancholic lights. A deep blue hue cast the stage into dark and moody light, with one light attached to the microphone to illuminate Josh Homme’s face. The angle of said light was startling and matched the intense and soaring rendition of ‘Villains of Circumstance’. Fans devoured the depths to which Act 1 was performed, the slow, almost psychological way he made his way across the stage, caressing the microphone stand and drawing everyone deeper and deeper into the complex web he was spinning. 

This is where the spell shudders for a moment, as the lights shift from shades of azure and indigo, to scarlet and crimson. Unrestrained applause and cheers come from the audience, as Josh Homme and the rest of the band slowly return to the stage. In the background, a track plays, unfamiliar if you don’t know the band, but nearby there are a few people speaking along. Cameras come out to capture the first moments of Act 2.

Just like that, the people are back under his gaze, only this time there is an ominous air that has overtaken Massey Hall. He speaks into his microphone, talking about how despite feeling like he is always learning, he never knows more than he does now, and now he knows nothing. A sentiment that most seem to agree with, judging by the cheering. He begins the mash up of ‘Someone’s in the Wolf / A Song for the Deaf / Straight Jacket Fitting’, which near the midway point he turns, a crazed look in his eye and walks straight for the abandoned microphone stand, knocking it on its side with the swing of a cleaver. 

Josh continued his dramatic affair with the aforementioned knife throughout the next few songs as well, leaning further into the dark and mysterious aura he was exuding on the stage. Crescendoing through mosquito song and ending act two with a cover of the crooked vulture song, spinning in daffodils. 

Now over half of the way through the night, the stage lights switched again, losing the foreboding presence in favour of a more level and evenly spaced space. It seemed act 3 had begun at this time. The band was stepping further into the musicality and further from the theatrics. Act 3 opened up with ‘You Got a Killer Scene There, Man…’ 

Josh eventually took the piano for the ‘Vampyre of Time and Memory’, before going on to play a new song called ‘Easy Street’, which debuted just days earlier while on this tour. In this act, they also played ‘Fortress’, which Josh dedicated to his daughter, Camille, before moving into the encore portion of the evening and closing out the show with ‘Long slow goodbye’, which they played a cappella much to the joy and admiration of the fans in attendance. 

This time as the house lights came on, there was a bittersweet tang in the air, it seemed just like that, the evening that people had dressed to the nines and showed up early to wait around the side of the building for was over. Though just like their closing song would imply, it would be a long slow while before fans forgot this evening.