Them Crooked Vultures @ The Fillmore, Charlotte, NC 2/10/2010 review

I’ll start with the venue. The place is nice. It has bars on all four corners and plenty of space to get around. $9 is rough for 22oz beers but after all these years, I’m not sure what is a good deal anymore. Seems every place is expensive. The sound and lighting was great. Only thing is they need a seat or two for pregnant ladies to rest for a little bit. And to turn on the heat outside!


The band was incredible. In your face, I just f’d your little sister and stole your Han Solo figure incredible. It’s hard to pick which guy was the best because two out of four of those dudes are pretty much the cat’s meow in the business at what they do. Grohl and JPJ are flat killers. Josh Homme should be counting his lucky stars that he gets to make music with these guys.
It’s apparent, though, that they write in his style more than not. There was a cool number that’s not on the record called “Highway 1” that had JPJ playing some sort of crazy electric mandolin or something similar; very Zeppelin like. He also did a pretty interesting piano solo. The sad part was seeing that the key-tar (video below for "Interlude With Ludes") he strapped on and that looked ready to rock – didn’t work. Fail. But, he made the song work with the standard keyboards. I was mostly focusing on JPJ and Grohl. I mean, JPJ is a REAL rock and roll legend who probably is a little under appreciated when it comes to dealing with Led Zeppelin. But, to watch him, you can see that he probably brought more to the table than Jimmy Page or Robert Plant will ever admit. And Grohl is just an animal. He hits hard but plays with a real swagger and tightness. As Josh Homme quipped, “he’s deaf! He can’t hear anything! Look! Look how hard he hits the cymbals!!” Dave Grohl is not afraid to be a rock drummer. A REAL rock drummer. As for Homme, he’s a rock and roll front man to the T. Smoking, drinking, all bloated and dirty and, with that being said, he’s perfect for these guys. His guitar playing and songwriting speak for themselves; the guy is no slouch. He gets the crowd involved and stays active the whole time. He’s not arrogant or condescending but confident and proud to be in that moment. I hate the guy. Seriously.


The band is tight and just crushed it for two hours. Well worth every dime. Better live than on record. Hands down, I’d pay to watch that again. It’s almost unbelievable the talent in that band. It’s like watching the 90’s Chicago Bulls out there and they make every other band look like Patrick Ewing’ Knicks of the 90’s – bitches. They were good. Comically good, actually. It’s unfair. Kind of like the Yankees, right Jonczak? And I think it all starts with how the band acts on stage.

The three main dudes play off each other really well and seem to be enjoying themselves. It was a stark contrast to some of the groups you see today. I think as good as they were musically, their wiliness to enjoy the band, dance, drink, make fun of themselves (the Smells Like and Black Dog moment – “what?!? Are you crazy? We can’t pull that stuff off! It’d be terrible! But I am better than Robert Plant!) And they truly seem to grasp what a golden opportunity they have right now. If you can look past all the QOTSA comparisons, then you can see a band that is, at heart, a really good live rock band who enjoy what they do and make no apologies for being themselves, all the while smoking cigarettes and swigging vodka straight out of the bottle.