Them Crooked Vultures

Back in my festival-going days, a major part of the excitement in the build-up was seeing the stage times released, a few weeks in advance; as soon as they were up on the web, the challenge was to pick apart the scheduling, and look for holes where secret bands appear. Sure enough, at Leeds festival back in 2009, the Friday appeared to have a gaping hole in the middle of the afternoon on the second stage. The cat was quite obviously out of the bag to some degree, because the tent neared capacity at around three o’ clock in the afternoon, despite nobody being scheduled to play, although whether or not most of the crowd was aware that three of the biggest names in rock were about to take the stage was another matter entirely. Josh Homme, Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones strolled out like it was nothing, launching straight into the noodling riffs of ‘Elephants’; they’d go on to treat the crowd to a set that ran over an hour, previewing most of their then-forthcoming self-titled record.
Homme was on classic form, offsetting furious riffery with that trademark matter-of-fact vocal delivery, whilst just seeing Jones playing the bass was enough for most; the guy was in Led Zeppelin, for crying out loud. There’s no question who the real star was, though; the crowd went wild for Grohl, who, if we’re honest, is probably the single biggest rock star of his generation. Whatever you think of the Foo Fighters, it just felt right to see him back behind the kit - whether he’ll be able to take enough time off from his ‘day job’ to go back to the Vultures remains to be seen, but if he manages it, you’ll do well to find a more heavyweight supergroup anywhere.

It is fair to say that supergroups often fall short of the high expectations we perhaps unjustly but frequently have of them. However, the Josh Homme / Dave Grohl / John Paul Jones cocktail that is Them Crooked Vultures was far from a disappointment when I saw them make their ‘secret’ appearance at Reading Festival in 2009. They had not been included in the released festival lineup, but somehow a whole lot of people had found out that they were due to perform all the same. Although having only recently formed, they put on a spectacle that was hard to forget! The NME/Radio 1 tent was packed to the rafters with fans eager to see these legends do what they do best and the band opened with ‘Elephant’, an original TCV track that was extremely well received by the rock-reverent onlookers. Dave Grohl’s engagement with the crowd clearly demonstrated his excellent showmanship skills, a highlight being his decision to empty a bottle of water over himself to cool off after a particularly furious and exuberant drum solo. Josh Homme’s superb riff work provided the set with spades of energy and urgency, whilst Jones held it all together on bass. Overall: a fantastically intense and star studded festival experience!