Kyuss generated positive reviews, sold a fair number of albums and amassed a cultish but fairly substantial audience over the course of its eight-year run. Still, the news that guitarist Josh Homme had started a new band after his Kyuss’ 1995 demise caused a stir that was largely limited to the band’s relatively small fan base.
Few critics would have dared to imagine that Homme’s next creative outlet, Queens of the Stone Age (QOTSA), would last more than twice as long as Kyuss to become a worldwide commercial powerhouse.
While QOTSA’s brutal riffmongering on their 1998 eponymous debut sparked a good deal of interest, it was 2000’s Rated R that broke them wide open, primarily because of “Feel Good Hit of the Summer.”
QOTSA’s real impact was felt with 2002’s conceptual Songs for the Deaf, which sold nearly a million copies and wound up being considered one of the greatest albums of the new millennium.
Queens of the Stone Age play with Guards 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 13. $32.50-$49.50. PNC Pavilion at Riverbend, California, riverbend.org.
