Them Crooked Vultures , in studio
Them Crooked Vultures, Roseland Ballroom, Thursday October 15, 2009
It’s turning out to be the year of the supergroup. Earlier this year Jack White and Allison Mosshart of the Kills debuted the Dead Weather, and the summertime brought us Chicken Foot, an unlikely collaboration featuring Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony of Van Halen with Joe Satriani and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Heck, even Thom Yorke of Radiohead and Flea are working together.
The most anticipated of 2009’s superstar pairings, however, had to have been Them Crooked Vultures, featuring a lineup as illustrious as any supergroup since Blind Faith brought together Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood – and that was 40 years ago. For those who haven’t heard, Them Crooked Vultures is a band featuring Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters and some other band you may have heard of on drums, Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age on vocals and guitar and John Paul Jones the legendary bassist of Led Zeppelin on bass, keytar and sundry other keyboard based instruments. Alain Johannes, a co-conspirator of Homme’s in Queens of the Stone Age, is also part of the touring band supplying additional guitar work.
On paper Them Crooked Vultures features a killer lineup. And the name value of the members involved alone has been enough to garner the band publicity in all the major music media outlets and spur brisk ticket sales on a tour featuring stops in both Europe and the US which was undertaken in advance of November 17, the date the band’s debut album is slated to drop.
Aside from the band members themselves, though, very little is known about Them Crooked Vultures – including what they sound like. At the time of their gig at New York City’s Roseland the album was still forthcoming and no single had yet been released. The only official studio recordings of the band to be heard by a wide audience thus far have been some snippets of songs released on the internet. The truly interested can also hunt down on Youtube some audience-shot videos of Them Crooked Vultures playing live. What we’re left with then is a band full of legitimate rock stars coming into a highly anticipated gig with a bunch of material no one’s ever heard. This is a sure recipe for a transcendent musical experience – or disaster.
Neither was the case at Roseland the night Them Crooked Vultures played. It was just kind of average. Everything was competently done, and that’s part of the problem. With a lineup featuring such notable musicians Them Crooked Vultures were expected to rise above mere competence. These guys are all stars (well, three of them, at least) and they should have shined more brightly. Instead, it felt that if you closed your eyes, you could have been listening to any four competent musicians playing on stage.
No doubt Roseland’s notoriously poor sound contributed to the lackluster impression of the band. Yes, the PA is loud as fuck, but the place may as well be an airplane hangar and unless you’re standing right in front of the stage, the reflections bouncing around what is essentially a large box tend to muddy up the sound of any band.
But a larger issue is the songs the band played. It’s always difficult for a band to debut new material to an audience, a fact which Homme acknowledged a few times in his banter between songs. A venue like Roseland or even some of the larger shows the band has played are not the most suitable for this task. It’s one thing to go see an up and coming band at a small club with maybe a hundred other people tops and listen to a bunch of songs you’ve never heard before. The intimacy of the venues facilitates a much more personal connection between band and audience. The band can see the faces of everyone in the audience, and the entire audience is privy to the most subtle expressions of the band members. A larger venue like Roseland takes away from this intimacy. Nevertheless, the band was certainly in friendly territory at Roseland as the audience, which came to the show with high expectations, was supportive of the band throughout its set.
Getting back to the songs themselves, though, they left this reviewer somewhat underwhelmed. This is a bit surprising considering the involvement of all three principal band members in the writing and recording of some of the most enduring rock songs of all time. A lot of the material came off sounding like Queens of the Stone Age outtakes. Not a bad thing in itself, but with the star power in this band you’d expect something a little more. Hopefully the album, when it’s finally released, will deliver on the promise the band holds to a greater degree than their live set. I’m still looking forward to listening to it. And though the show failed to meet expectations, which were perhaps in retrospect unreasonably high, if you wanted to catch a rocking band live, Roseland was the place to be that night. After all, how often do you get to see a rhythm section made up of Nirvana’s drummer and Led Zeppelin’s bass player?
Nick Fokas
I would have to respectfully disagree with you. I was at the concert and I would have to say they were incredible. I was not completely overwhelmed because my expectations were so high, but my expectations were met. It’s hard to fall in love with most songs the first time you hear them, but I can safely say there were several songs they played that I immediately loved. The album is going to be even better because you are right, the roseland ballroom did not help them out with their sound quality. All in all, I cannot wait for the album.