Queens Of The Stone Age’s summer shows at the London venues Brixton Academy and Koko make up the bulk of the live CD/DVD “Over the Years and Through the Woods,” due this week via Interscope. Frontman Josh Homme says that after “five attempts to play in London and five shows canceled there, it seemed like a good place to film when we finally made it back.”
The only problem: Homme had undergone knee surgery three days before the shows and was barely able to move around the stage. “I took enough Vicodin to kill a small child,” he says with a laugh. “I didn’t want to cancel again. That would have been seven shows, and people start using the word ‘curse’ after that.”
Beyond such oddities as “The Fun Machine Took a S*** and Died” (an outtake from the latest QOTSA album, “Lullabies To Paralyze”) and “I Wanna Make It Wit Chu” (from Homme’s ongoing Desert Sessions project), the DVD also rounds up rearranged versions of familiar material.
“Someone could say, ‘Oh, ‘Monsters in the Parasol’ is on here,’ but it’s different,” Homme says. “It’s anything but what it is on the record. The songs we chose are alternate versions and different arrangements. It was a way to show wingspan, like how far out things can go.”
Directed by Chapman Baehler, the DVD also features bonus footage from throughout QOTSA’s career, including songs with Dave Grohl, Mark Lanegan and former bassist Nick Oliveri from the “Songs for the Deaf” era. “We did some commentary when we were drinking,” Homme reports. “We kind of just watched stuff and messed around. If you turn the language to French, you’ll hear us talkin’ trash.”
