Rock returned to Canadian Tire Center on Friday evening as Seattle’s Queens of The Stone Age brought their End is Nero tour to Ottawa with special guests The Struts.

Formed in 2012 in Derby, England the Struts have been making quite the name for themselves around the world. Having opened for the Rolling Stones, Foo Fighters and Guns N’ Roses as well as headlined their own global tours, I’ll honestly say that I was more intrigued by them than I was QOTSA.

The Struts perform at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa. Photo: Renée Doiron

When you look at music coming out in the last 10-20 years nothing seems to match the glory days of Britt Rock. We had that one glorious era that gave us acts like the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Queen to name just a few but then nothing significant that’s had any staying power since. But there’s something about The Struts…front man Luke Spiller feels like a cross between Freddie Mercury and Mick Jagger when it comes to his onstage antics and gestures. The Ottawa crowd was treated to 8 of their songs from “Primadonna” to their breakthrough single “Could Have Been Me”. The only disappointment in this set was how few actually showed up for it…imagine missing the opportunity to see the Rolling Stones before they became huge stars…The Struts have all of that potential, they show great promise to lead a revival of the Britt Rock scene and the rock scene in general.

Seattle’s Queen’s of the Stone Age (QOTSA) were up next and exploded onto the stage in a wash of bright red back lighting. They kicked off their set with “Regular John” off of their 1998 self titled album Queens of the Stone Age.

Queens of the Stone Age perform at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa. Photo: Renée Doiron

Overall I found their set lacking something. Josh Homme’s stage presence and audience interaction was a definite highlight but I just found musically all of their songs seemed to blend together and sounded the same with no real stand out. The crowd, which had grown substantially since the Struts wrapped up their set, seemed to have a differing opinion from mine, which is ok. The one key moment that stood out, for me, was when it came to “Make it Wit Chu” (from the 2006 album Era Vulgaris) the crowd seemed under Holmes’ spell, singing every word in unison. Although this is common at shows last night was different as it felt more natural, almost like it was rehearsed. I guess after you’ve been performing and releasing music for 27 years you develop that kind of relationship with your audience.

After “Make It Wit Chu” they wrapped up their set with “Little Sister”, “God Is In The Radio”, “Go With the Flow” and “Song for the Dead”.

The tour continues to work it’s way east with a pair of stops in Quebec before heading to the Maritimes for shows in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to cap off an impressive Canadian run.

For tickets and more information visit: http://qotsa.com/

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