A Short History of (Queens of) the Stone Age
- — June 22, 2011
Soundgarden playing Phoenix, Ariz., during Lollapalooza '96. Screaming Trees, featuring Josh Homme on guitar, also performed.
California-based Queens of the Stone Age is revered for its monolithic stoner rock riffs and frontman Josh Homme’s erotically charged vocals. Less widely known are Homme’s deep ties to Seattle in general and Soundgarden in particular. Leading up to their shared bill at the Gorge this month, Hannah Levin traveled back to 1997...
The first Queens of the Stone Age show took place on Nov. 20, 1997, at Pioneer Square’s OK Hotel. The line-up was Josh Homme, Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron, John McBain—who also played in Soundgarden bassist Ben Shepherd’s side project, Hater—and Dinosaur Jr. bassist Mike Johnson. The night was sweaty, smoky and momentous.
“The show was as good as I wanted it to be,” says musician and tour manager John-Peter Hasson. “There was always something glorious about that back room of the OK Hotel. The floor sort of bounced, and there was a sizable hole in the floor in the southeast corner where you could see through to the creepy basement.”
Owners Tia and Steve Freeborn coalesced a close circle of friends and fans around the OK Hotel. Diane Podolak booked it. The night of the Queens’ debut, it was the right place at the right time. Homme and the Soundgarden camp became close in 1996, after he was hired as temporary guitarist with the Screaming Trees, who were on the road with Soundgarden during Lollapalooza that year. Steve Gilbert, a photographer working as bartender at the OK Hotel, went along for that hedonistic ride.
“I went to the tour opener in Kansas City and we wound up partying for three days,” Gilbert says. “Josh had just joined the Trees and we became buddies right away. At that point, Soundgarden asked me to come along for the whole Lollapaloza tour. I called Tia at the OK and told her I wasn’t coming back. She wasn’t happy, but sometimes you just have to go for that sort of stuff.”
Gilbert returned to Seattle with a cache of memorable images. He got his job back at the OK Hotel just in time to catch the Queens developing in the amplified incubator of the club’s stage.
“The Queens’ early vibe was badass—a fresh perspective on the existing scene that was blowing up for the OK Hotel,” says Podolak, today a music publicist in Brooklyn. “Soundgarden and Queens were already a tight group of friends, all of whom were close to Steve and Tia, so you could feel the loyalty everyone had for each other. It was like everyone was related, the friendships ran so deep. Watching these guys rise up from a tiny club was exciting.”
Along with booking the OK Hotel, Podolak helped with artist development at Loosegroove Records, fledgling label of Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard. Thanks in part to her connections, Queens signed to Loosegroove and released its eponymous debut on Sept. 22, 1998.
Soundgarden broke up in 1997, Loosegroove went under in 2000, and, after suffering damage in the Nisqually Earthquake, the OK Hotel closed in 2001. Queens of the Stone Age survived—and went on to great success.
They signed to Interscope and broke through to an international audience with Rated R, Songs for the Deaf and Lullabies to Paralyze, heavy-duty records that featured the eerie vocal presence of Homme’s former Screaming Trees bandmate Mark Lanegan. Queens also influenced a new generation of bong-burning rockers, including Northwest bands Red Fang and White Orange. Homme continues to collaborate, having worked with operatic savant PJ Harvey on a Desert Sessions album and with John Paul Jones and Dave Grohl on their instantly embraced side project Them Crooked Vultures.
“Josh is a chameleon,” says Freeborn, who now co-owns the Hazlewood bar in Ballard with Soundgarden’s Shepherd and two other partners. “He’s really good at getting talented people together and making great albums.”
After years of pestering from his fanbase, Homme reissued Queens’ long out-of-print debut via his own Rekords Rekords label in May. The band returns to the studio this fall to record their sixth album.
On July 30, Soundgarden plays their first reunion concert in the Northwest since a surprise one-off in spring of 2010. Queens of the Stone Age will open, returning to a Northwest stage with their old friends—and to the arms of a Seattle audience who always thought of them as one of their own. (They also recently announced an intimate date at Seattle’s Showbox at the Market the following night.)
“Queens wasn’t from Seattle,” says KEXP DJ and longtime fan Marco Collins, who worked at KNDD during Queens’ ascent. “But it sure felt like they were.”
Hannah Levin is the host of KEXP’s local show, Audioasis, which airs Saturday nights from 6 to 9 p.m.
Photography by Steve Gilbert.
