Arguably the most powerful and critically acclaimed hard rock band of the last two decades: Queens Of The Stone Age will return to Australia and New Zealand in July 2017 for Frontier Touring, performing four visceral headline shows.
QOTSA will kick off their tour at Auckland’s Logan Campbell on Thursday 13th July. They’ll play Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion on Wednesday 19th July, and Melbourne’s Festival Hall on Thursday 20th July.
And that’s not all. Northern Territory – it’s your time. In what promises to be a truly once-in-a-lifetime gig to remember, QOTSA will bring their end-of-the-world grooves to the Top End for the very first time ever, performing at Darwin’s Convention Centre on Sunday 16th July. It’s not every day (or hell let’s face it, every year) that one of the world’s biggest rock bands heads to Darwin, so don’t delay in grabbing tickets. Interstaters: book airfares, lock in accom… this is one show you don’t want to miss.
Deadly and debonair, QOTSA – led by founding member/frontman Josh Homme (guitar/vocals), with Troy Van Leeuwen (guitar), Dean Fertita (guitar/keys), Jon Theodore (drums/percussion), and Michael Shuman (bass) – having toured both countries multiple times to sell-out crowds, they are no strangers to Australian and New Zealand fans. It’s been three years since their last visit, during which Homme declared, “Everybody who knows me knows that Australia is my home away from home”.
Emerging from California’s Palm Desert in the late ‘90s with their seminal 1998 self-titled debut – opener ‘Regular John’ a blistering statement of intent – over the next 19 years QOTSA have continually evolved, Homme forging his own path from album to album. 2000’s Rated R was an international hit, containing ‘Feel Good Hit Of The Summer’, ‘Monsters In The Parasol’, and ‘The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret’. 2002’s platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated Songs For The Deaf is considered one of the greatest rock records of all time hands down. It featured guest drummer Dave Grohl plus the #1 song in triple j’s Hottest 100, ‘No One Knows’, alongside ‘Go With The Flow’, ‘First It Giveth’ and more.
2005’s Lullabies to Paralyze cemented their reign with singles ‘Little Sister’ and ‘Burn The Witch’, while 2007’s Era Vulgaris saw the band take yet another direction as heard on tracks ‘Sick, Sick, Sick’, ‘Make It Wit Chu’ and ‘3’s & 7’s’.
Most recently, their sixth album, …Like Clockwork, enlisted Trent Reznor and Elton John, featured ‘My God Is The Sun’, ‘I Sat By The Ocean’, and the sultry ‘Smooth Sailing’, and debuted at #1 on the ARIA Album charts in Australia and #2 in New Zealand. It topped charts in the USA, Portugal, Ireland, UK, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Finland and more, making it one of the band’s highest-selling discs yet. The follow-up to 2013’s critically acclaimed …Like Clockwork is eagerly awaited by fans, with a new album in the works.
For the last 18 months QOTSA have kept a low profile, working on new material… Homme collaborating with Iggy Pop on the singer’s 2016 album Post Pop Depression, which he co-wrote, recorded and produced at his Pink Duck studio in Burbank and Joshua Tree’s Rancho De La Luna. (Upon release it would be Pop’s highest charting album ever.)
Now, QOTSA return, at last bringing their military precision and razorblade rock back to Australia and New Zealand, also headlining Byron Bay festival Splendour In The Grass on Saturday 22 July. It’s been three years since their legendary double-bill alongside Nine Inch Nails, shows which left critics and fans reeling.
These tickets will go fast – don’t miss out on seeing Queens Of The Stone Age as they make their welcome return to Australia and New Zealand this July!
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE
+ Special guests to be announced
Thu 13 Jul | Logan Campbell, Auckland, NZ (18+)
Sun 16 Jul | Convention Centre, Darwin, NT (All Ages)
Wed 19 Jul | Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, NSW (All Ages)
Thu 20 Jul | Festival Hall, Melbourne, VIC (All Ages)