If any of you follow my Tumblr you've probably learned two things: One, I have quite the sailor mouth and two, I am obsessed with music. I try to go to as many shows as I can, but from where I live and with no license, it's kind of hard to do so. That's kind of where this vacation sprouted from. I hoped on the opportunity to get Queens Of The Stone Age tickets as soon as I got the email from Ticketmaster about them coming to Toronto. They were purchased 2 minutes after they went on sale without any plans on how to get there or who we were going to go with. We'd figure it out, we had to figure it out - Josh Homme is absolutely one of my top 5 favourite musicians, and it's Queens Of The Mother Effin' Stone Age! I had been waiting over a decade to see them live. Finally, it was my chance.
So, Jesse knowing how much this band means to me, he planned the whole week surrounding this concert in Toronto, as our little anniversary vacation. Probably the best gift I've ever received. What a sweetheart, right? But enough mushy stuff and onto the most amazing night that was my Queens Of The Stone Age concert.
We spent the afternoon shopping so we were a bit tired from walking around all day, so we spent our time walking down to the Air Canada Centre (from Dundas Square where we stay in Toronto, to the ACC is almost 2km). We barely waited in line because we got there early. We like to see all the opening acts because we've had so many opportunities to see such great bands that we had never heard of. Bands that I am now in love with, like Arkells and the Arctic Monkeys are because I went to see the opening acts. The opening band was Guards and yes, they were great!
The
setlist couldn't have been more perfect for me - they played most of my favourite tunes and a few that Jesse actually knew and enjoyed (he's not the biggest QOTSA fan, but he is a good sport). It's always a good time when Josh Homme is feeling sassy, too. And if you're a fan of the band, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I was really excited to see Jon Theodore and Troy Van Leeuwen play live too, as I've been a fan of both their work (The Mars Volta, A Perfect Circle, etc.) for quite some time. We had great seats in lower level, a section away from the stage. Vision and sound quality perfection! Most people question us for wanting seats but we often opt for them, because we're old. Just kidding, no we just prefer sound quality to closeness to be honest. It also helps when you've ruined your eardrums over the many years of attending concerts and insisting on being front row.
Like I said yesterday, I had broken my kit lens for my camera so I couldn't use it for much of our vacation, but in this circumstance, you can't bring SLR cameras inside and we were in lower level seating so it wouldn't been great for photos anyways. I had taken a few shots from my pocket camera but I was having too much fun to worry about it. Luckily for me,
Riley Taylor has been so kind as to let me use some his photos to showcase today.
Okay, I've rambled on enough, but I'll leave you with this video of the closing song during the encore. A Song For The Dead is such a perfect end. The cherry on top of the most delicious cake. Um, also, can I please fan girl over Josh's hip sway? ~squeals!~ Okay, I'm done.
