Them Crooked Vultures. Hammersmith Apollo. Awesome

After what can only be described as 70’s cop show driving to get us to the station and a hilarity filled train journey which will make sense only to those present, we arrived at Hammersmith tube station. We trekked up the stairs from the platform before me and a man who seems to be my gig buddy, (less gay than it sounds), Matt had to stop, having lost Matt’s dad, and his dad’s mate. Nothing wrong about that and we found them alright in the end but this gets a mention because we spotted Rick bloody Wakeman of Yes fame striding out of the tube station with us. Surreal moments for the win.

After talking to a ‘nice' American lady about the nights entertainment, (less pervy than it sounds), we got in the queue for none other than Them Crooked Vultures. Only the superb supergroup made up of Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters, and the legend that is John Paul Jones, the bassist in the most influential band of all time, Led Zeppelin.

First though, Josh’s Queens buddy Troy van Leeuwen presents us his new side project, Sweethead. Their grungy noise has more in common with his day job in Queens than anything else and the group’s female singer seems a bit like a gimmick as opposed to an integral part of their sound. Almost as if they auditioned her by saying… “So. Do you sound a little bit like Brody Dalle?” They depart with as much applause as is customary for a band that no one in the venue is bothered about, this isn’t because they’re particularly bad but when you know that Messrs Grohl, Homme, and Jones are waiting in the wings it’s difficult to give any other music much look in.

Without any fanfare at all except the frantic screams of a couple thousand die hard fans, Them Crooked Vultures take the stage. Grohl first. Jones second. Homme last. Unless of course you count touring guitarist and ex Queens bassist Alain Johannes who contributes mainly by making Josh look good, although he doesn’t need much help, but also by playing some of the other guitar parts since the songs are made up of multiple recorded tracks. They open the gig with album opener and personal favourite No One Loves Me and Neither Do I and by the time the songs huge climactic riff has rung out a final time the jaws of everyone in the audience has dropped, and they stay there for the rest of the evening.

Without too much chat, Josh Homme sweeps his band, (and it really does seem to be his band), into Dead End Friends and Scumbag Blues which sounds a lot like 60’s psychadelia band, Cream. A brief pause before one of their best songs Elephants explodes into its blues-funk-stoner-rock life, (although this can sum up most of the bands output). Next up was a track, surprisingly left off the album but when JPJ picks up his mandolin, worried looks spread out across the audience. We needn’t have worried though as the song is easily listenable, not good enough to get on the album apparently but a nice break from the deliberate ear pummeling that preceded it and will follow. New Fang is the song that follows it giving Dave Grohl the opportunity to pound the crap out of the drums and also an opportunity for some quality slide guitar, yeah slide guitar dammit. Gunman follows and manages to inspire a huge sing-a-long.

To give the guys a break Alain Johannes breaks into some blues before the rest of the band return for a fairly relaxing meander through the musical ideas of Bandoliers before going straight in to inevitable single, Mind Eraser, No Chaser. The chorus alone with Dave Grohl enhancement is enough for the ticket price. Some brief Josh Homme chat is extremely funny as he informs the crowd that Mr. Grohl has told him to lay off the booze which gains a few pantomime boo’s all of its own, “Yeah, who’s your hero now London?” Homme jokes before guiding the band into a classy version of a pretty un-classy song when you check the lyrics, Caligulove, memorable really for JPJ’s funky dancing at the piano. Speaking of funky dancing… Josh Homme get’s his own turn as he puts down the guitar for once to let JPJ pick up a keytar, (a motha’ucking keytar) for the properly weird but still properly awesome Interlude with Ludes. As brilliant as that is it doesn’t prepare you for the slightly disconcerting Spinning in the Daffodils whose outro takes it’s lyrics from an obscure Mark Lanegan, (another QOTSA collaborator and Screaming Trees frontman), song adding another level of gravitas.

By this point… and with so much awesome being thrown in our general direction, the crowd seems to have forgotten how many songs they can possibly have left to play. Some hoping there’s lots more with their eyes on some QOTSA, Foo Fighters or maybe even Led Zeppelin covers but others have their eyes on the last train from Hammersmith tube station and no matter how much these musicians are loved and revered… some people have started to leave. They miss out though as the penultimate song is Reptiles which although it's not one of my favourites on the record was a perfect way to bring the show back up to its peak energy. As with probably all the shows on this tour, the band ends with Warsaw (or the first breath you take before you give up) and instead of the already long seven minute version of the song… it gets extended to about 16 minutes. But damn it was good. God damn the whole gig was amazing. And as they leave without an encore and only a short goodbye, not one person feels shortchanged and if the frenzy at the merch table was anything to go by, they’ll be back here soon.