Pictures by ROBERT KITCHIN/Dominion Post

No One Loves Me & Neither Do I
 Dead End Friends
 Scumbag Blues
 Elephants
 Highway One
 New Fang
 Gunman Blues
 Guitar solo from Alain
 Bandoliers
 Mind Eraser, No Chaser
 Caligulove
 Interlude With Ludes
 Spinning In Daffodils
 Reptiles
 Warsaw or The First Breath You Take After You Give Up

THEM CROOKED VULTURES

 Hordern Pavilion, January 26

Grohl’s star shines, even at the back on drums
Reviewed by Bernard Zuel from the Sydney Morning Herald and

 IT IS easy to forget that Dave Grohl was and is something other than the  charming frontman and guitarist for Foo Fighters. He does it rather successfully too. But when you watch the recently released Nirvana Live at
 Reading DVD you look on astonished and think yeah, he’s all right, isn’t he.
 Then you see him in the flesh. Sweat streaming, hair flying, arms flailing god-he-is-good flesh. And you are transfixed. Yes, there is a singer of considerable charisma out front, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age. Yes, there is a bassist, guitarist, keyboardist of  incredible skill and history alongside – Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones – who subsumes his ego so that whatever instrument he is on he plays the song  and not the star.
 And Grohl, while singing a lot of backing vocals, makes a point of being  nothing but the guy at the back, letting Homme play cool, sexy or  professional crowd-lifter as he sees fit.
 But it is Grohl who holds your attention, who anchors the shifting ground of  songs such as No One Loves Me and Neither Do I and Reptiles and drives the  power dynamics of New Fang. And it is Grohl who can almost make you miss the  fact that while the playing here is stunningly good and there is no shortage  of power and cleverness, the songs aren’t always as interesting.  Melodies have never been Homme’s strongest suit and that contributes to  there being a few too many longueurs where you feel like you are watching a  superior jam. There are many moments where the impressive mix of brute force  and skill has you gobsmacked, but not every song would last in a setlist  come a second album.
 The Hordern was full and heaving but a good part of the excitement was just  being in the presence of a giant such as Jones, Homme and that bloke on the  drums.
Thanks for Michael Rae for supplying the review.