Wolverhmampton Civic hall, Wolverhampton, 17th June, 2003.

It was a long overdue pleasure, having purchased arguably the best Rock Album of 2002, which has solidified their reputation as being one of the best bands around at the moment, and last seeing them in 2001, it would be interesting for me to see how the changes in personnel affected the bands performance this time around. Well, the first night of the last part of their tour of this album proved to be an exhilarating one, as the band showed in their performance they were clearly up for it.

I don’t know if it was a general reinvogoration, or the pressure generated from Metallica’s St.Anger LP to speed up most of their set, perhaps it was a desire to cram everything in? Certainly songs off the first two records, which sound plodding at times on long play, had been renewed here live, thanks mostly to drummer Joey Castillo’s unrelenting pace, which encouraged a new-found interest in songs that have already been played to death, and will seem stale compared to this performance.

A wonderfully crafted backdrop and new single “First it Giveth” were our introduction, leading on to the glam “Do it again”, to “Monsters in your parasol”, to ” Millionaire” to “Leg of Lamb” to “Go with the Flow” to the enticing Mark Lanegan set-within a set of “Autopilot”, the only song that plodded in the entire set, “Hangin’ tree”, “In the Fade”, “Song for the Dead”, “Song for the Deaf”, “Another love song”, then songs from their eponymous debut “Regular John” and “If only” made Alfredo Hernandez’s drumming on that record seem like Meg White in Slow motion, and the main set ended with “No one Knows”.

Sadly, I was unable to stick around for the encore, but all looks good for V2003. The Queens are usually regarded as a loud band, which they duly complied with. The interesting aspect for me is that they have never played  the songs as fast, as the songs were quick and to the point, rather than quick and to the pointless.

If tonight was any indication, this incarnation of the band’s now stable set up, has allowed the members to adjust into a confidence and drive,that was clearly evident on tonight’s performance, and I am grateful for that.

Craig Aston.

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