Live albums aren't worth purchasing 99% of the time due to two reasons: 1) the band doesn't deserve it; 2) the recording quality is atrocious. Over the Years and Through the Woods defies both of those with ease. Josh Homme and his current cast of Queens of the Stone Age, in my opinion, are the best rock band playing out, and the audio/video quality of this DVD/CD combo release is impeccable.
The main attraction of the DVD portion is footage gathered from a sold out performances at The Brixton Academy. We are treated to an extensive set of songs spanning the entire career of the Queens, plus a couple of sweet bonuses. Whether the band is driving through hits like "Go with the Flow," "Feel Good Hit of the Summer," and "No One Knows" or they're jamming through fan favorites like "Mexicola," they are playing with an immense amount of energy. The intensity of the live Queens experience is captured perfectly, which actually brings some added life to what I had previously considered to be lackluster songs - "I Never Came" for example.
As far as those sweet bonuses I referred to aboveââ¬Â¦ Homme and company treat us to a cover of "I Wanna Make it Wit Chu" from his Desert Sessions as well as the long sought after "The Fun Machine Took a Shit and Died," which was supposed to appear on the band's recent Lullabies to Paralyze, but somehow it got "lost." Oh yeah, I almost forgot, we get to hear Homme tell some idiot in the audience he's a cocksmoker and to eat a bag of dicks - classic. In addition the Brixton performance, there is select material of each incarnation of the Queens. For nostalgic purposes it is pretty cool, though the Songs for the Deaf-era videos were previously available on the deluxe version of that album.
The CD disc of this release is fourteen songs culled from the live performance at the infamous U.K. venue. The selections made for the CD portion could have been bettered based upon the songs in the DVD portion - "You Can't Quit Me, Baby" and "Long Slow Goodbye" definitely could have been opted out.
So if you're a Queens fan and have yet to shell out the cashola for this, it's time to man up or Homme might be calling you a cocksmoker in the near future. And if you're not a fan of Queens of the Stone Age, eat a bag of dicks.
