Anything but flaccid: Viagra Boys double-up with Queens of the Stone Age at Starlight

Queens of the Stone Age. // Photo by Russ Fischer

Queens of the Stone Age
with Jehnny Beth and Viagra Boys
Starlight Theatre
Wednesday, Sept. 20

French post-punk musician Jehnny Beth’s set feels almost like the opening act to a revolution. She wears all black with her dark hair slicked back, and her reverberating voice in the mic combines with the electro-punk sounds of the keyboard to give the impression that she’s minutes away from telling the audience to cast off capitalism. 

“Don’t worry about what people think,” she says. “Because by looking at you, they’ll get used to it.” 

I think it is meant to mean your lack of conformity, but Jehnny Beth does not elaborate. She doesn’t have to. She’s cool and French. 

In contrast, the next act seems to revel in their distinct lack of cool, which (of course) makes them even cooler. 

Swedish band Viagra Boys is composed of Henrik Höckert on bass, Tor Sjödén on drums, Elias Jungqvist on keyboards, Linus Hillborg on guitar, Oskar Carls on saxophone, flute, and guitar, and Sebastian Murphy on lead vocals. 

I can honestly say I’ve never seen or heard anything like them. 

Carls plays the loudest, longest saxophone solo I’ve ever heard—after burning through cigarette after cigarette on stage in booty shorts with a scandalous slit up the side. Editor-in-chief Brock Wilbur turns to me and asks, “How can you chain smoke and do that?” We don’t have an answer. 

Endless Anxiety with Viagra Boys. // Photo by Brock Wilbur

Murphy has a bizarre, intentionally sleazy onstage persona that makes the crowd go nuts. He has a forehead tattoo of the Swedish word “lös” (which translates to “loose”), and he waltzes on stage shirtless, sporting track pants, dark sunglasses, a silver chain, and a beer gut. 

The banner behind him reads “Endless Anxiety” with two bloodshot eyes beneath a set of bushy eyebrows, but he’s the opposite of bashful. In his gravelly voice, he addresses the audience.

“I went to the aquarium earlier today,” he rasps. “Not gonna lie, they got some cool stuff there. They got some sea cucumbers that made me a little uncomfortable… There’s a sign that says report suspicious activity if you see it, and I reported that sea anemone right away. It made me feel suspicious about myself. And they escorted me off the premises.”

He breaks out some weird, funky little dance moves as if he’s grooving to “Walk Like an Egyptian” during each song.

“Baseball,” he sings in the first verse of “Sports.” “Basketball. Wiener dog.” 

He leads a crowd of alternative rock fans in a chorus chant of “Sports! Sports! Sports! Sports!” 

It’s a headbanging good time, right up to the end when he growls into the mic, “I love you like a cousin or a wife, you know. All right. Thank you so much for watching us.”

As the tech crew breaks down the equipment for the headliners, “Mambo Italiano” plays at least twice. It’s the cherry on top of a strange, wonderful night, even before Queens of the Stone Age launch into their set. 

Queens of the Stone Age. // Photo by Russ Fischer

“No One Knows,” so thunderous it makes my teeth ache, is followed by “The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret.”

Vocalist Josh Homme peacocks around the stage. 

“How the fuck are you?” he asks the audience during a pause. “We shall drink and dance and have a good time, yeah?”

He’s joined by bass player Michael Shuman, who is the birthday boy tonight. We attempt to sing him The Birthday Song on two occasions, but the crowd can’t really get on the same sync for it.

Under the haze of artificial smoke and flashing lights, Hommes makes purposefully absurd statements while encouraging the audience to get closer to the stage. These include: 

• “I’ve almost been killed six times. Nobody can kill me. And you know what I’ve learned? You gotta take the good times while you can.”
• “You can do whatever you fucking want. Just don’t hurt no one.”
• “Come on, let’s fuck.”

I’ve read about Hommes’s tendency to provoke and tease onlookers. It’s very rock n’ roll in theory, but when people start climbing over seats and hiding from security’s flashlight sweeps in the orchestra pit, it gets to be a little much. Especially because the majority of Starlight’s security staff is made up of kindly women nearing the age of retirement. I know they aren’t getting paid enough to deal with this tomfoolery. 

“Remember, security—tonight you work for me,” Homme announces. “I am your fucking boss. Don’t make no troubles now.” Which, okay, cool, but that’s not at all how this works. Credit where credit’s due: Homme does pause the show to make sure a fan in a wheelchair doesn’t lose his view of the stage. 

Queens of the Stone Age. // Photo by Russ Fischer

“There was a motherfuckers in a wheelchair right there—don’t block that motherfucker,” he says. “Part the seas!” The fan calls out to him, and Homme chuckles. “He said, ‘I guess I’m a motherfucker,’” Homme informs the audience. “But I can tell by the look of you, you are a motherfucker, and you’re in a wheelchair, too, so come up to the front where you belong!” 

For the rest of the show, my gaze pivots from the stage to the security guards standing shoulder-to-shoulder outside the orchestra section. At one point, two teenagers dart across our row to avoid detection. 

It’s an action-packed night, to say the least. 

Queens of the Stone Age. // Photo by Brock Wilbur

Setlist:
No One Knows
The Lost Art of Keeping A Secret
Smooth Sailing
My God is in the Sun
Emotion Sickness
If I Had A Tail
Into The Hollow
Carnavoyeur
The Way You Used To Do
Negative Space
Better Living Through Chemistry
Time & Place
Make It Wit Chu
Little Sister

Encore
In The Fade
God is in the Radio
Go With The Flow
Song for the Dead