Live Review: Them Crooked Vultures

The only, and best, analogy I can use for super groups is that of making an elephant fly with a rocket. Sure it may go far, but does it ever go far enough?

Them Crooked Vultures are the only exception from the last three decades of failed attempts at super stellar greatness, and they showed why Monday night at the Egyptian Room in Indianapolis. 

Made up of Josh Homme on vocals and guitar(Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss), Dave Grohl on drums (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), and John Paul Jones on bass (Led Zeppelin), the trio shifted and swayed their way through a 90 minute set comprising of all known recorded songs by the band. 

Opening song "No One Loves Me, & Neither Do I" may have given away their best groove tune and dance anthem too soon, but it was Homme's 37th birthday which gives him the right to do what he pleases. 

The Vultures spread their wings early on in the night with "Scumbag Blues" stretching the song into a jam reminiscent of Cream. John Paul Jones made bass solos look so easy all while Homme crooned in his signature falsetto. 

Jones is the master musician of the group. Variously strings basses, mandolin, clavinova, keyboard, keytar (yes... keytar) and violin were all played flawlessly and seamlessly by the virtuoso who adds splashes of color to Homme and Grohl's dismal riffs and rhythms. 

Grohl, looking spritely for a werewolf, reminded everyone just how belligerently blunt he can be behind a drum kit. Whether pounding out disco beats for "Gunman" or weaving his way in and out of triple time on "Warsaw", he knew no bounds and relentlessly hammered his way through the night. 

While Homme and Grohl are set to return to their respective bands this fall, Them Crooked Vultures played a new tune "You Can't Possibly Begin To Imagine" which showed why there should be a Vultures round two. A dark, swampy blues jam reminiscent of Queens circa Lullabies To Paralyze, it's a seven minute epic in three parts that finds this band meshing over more into a singular unit. 

Yet if there is no future for this band, at least they speak volumes to what any group, let alone a super one, should be. Heavy, grandiose, groovy and not afraid to sport a ginger as a front man.

Set List:

1. No One Loves Me Neither Do I
2. Gunman
3. Scumbag Blues
4. Dead End Friends
5. Elephants 
6. Highway 1
7. New Fang
8. Bandoliers
9. Interlude With Ludes
10. Mind Eraser, No Chaser
11. Caligulove
12. You Can't Possibly Begin To Imagine
13. Spinning In Daffodils
14. Reptiles
15. Warsaw Or The First Breath You Take After Giving Up