Queens of the Stone Age “Songs for the Deaf” 2002. An uncharacteristic CD post today because a) we saw QOTSA last night in Madison, b) a vinyl copy is basically unattainable, going for a median price of $230 and c) Josh Homme told a fantastic story last night and I need to write about it here.

The concert was at the historic Breese Stevens Field, located just a few blocks from the State Capitol building. We met up with a couple of friends who found a good spot on the bleachers to the side of the stage. The guys headed down to the grass to be near the stage once Queens of the Stone Age started playing; I chose to stay bleacher-beached because the dude-brah level at a QOTSA show is way too high for my palate.

To the story! Homme mentioned that he recently turned 45 (so he’s just about 2 years younger than me) and when he was about 18 he lived in Madison and recalled playing shows here with Ween (whether he opened for them or sat in during their performance wasn’t obvious – Homme was clearly, and self-admittedly, wasted last night so not all of his crowd banter was coherent). He then said he bartended at O’Cayz Corral (a bar that I saw many shows at, when I lived in Madison between ‘89-’93 and then later through the 90′s before it burned down in 2001, shows including Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Murder City Devils, Nashville Pussy, and many many more; it’s entirely possible that at one point Josh Homme served me a drink) and “I slept with at least 5 of you. At the same time. This next song is about that,” and launched into “No One Knows.” “No One Knows” was the first single released from Songs for the Deaf which became a huge hit, making it to #51 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, #5 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #1 on the Alternative Songs chart. It was nominated for a Best Hard Rock Performance Grammy (losing, kinda ironically, to Foo Fighters’ “All My Life” – Dave Grohl drummed for QOTSA on Songs for the Deaf) and Rolling Stone placed it at #97 in their list of Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time. That’s a lot of acclaim given to an experience at a 150-capacity shitty (but awesome!) club in Madison, Wisconsin.