Queens Of The Stone Age are releasing the audio from ‘Alive in The Catacombs’, the concert documentary capturing their performance in the catacombs of Paris last year.
The recordings will arrive on streaming this Friday (June 13) via Matador Records. In addition, the band will also release the audio on a limited vinyl edition, for which only 5,000 copies will be made.
The vinyl edition contains an exclusive 24-page booklet of behind the scenes photos taken by long-time collaborator Andreas Neumann. Housed in a gatefold jacket with foil print inside and out, each copy will be individually stamped and numbered. The vinyl can be pre-ordered here ahead of the release on August 22.
During the performance, which took place without an audience, the band was joined by a three-piece string section, using chains and chopsticks as makeshift percussion instruments. Every song was recorded live in a complete take with no overdubs or edits.
The tracklist is:
‘Running Joke/Paper Machete’
‘Kalopsia’
‘Villains of Circumstance’
‘Suture Up Your Future’
‘I Never Came’
The film Alive in The Catacombs came out last week and follows the band’s performance in the Paris Catacombs in July 2024.
The Catacombs – where the remains of more than six million people are housed – have been open for public visitation since the 19th century, and remain a popular tourist attraction in the French capital. Queens Of The Stone Age were the first band to perform there.
In a four-star review of the film, NME wrote: “So immersive is the California rockers’ starkly beautiful Thomas Rames-directed and Blogothèque-produced half-hour live film Alive In The Catacombs, that it’s easy to get lost – as you might while navigating the tunnels and ossuaries beneath the French capital. What’s more, this ain’t no standard stripped-back Live Lounge kinda affair. Homme and co are aided by a supporting cast of six million souls whose skulls line the walls.
“As guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen puts it in the accompanying Alive In Paris And Before documentary (by QOTSA’s longtime visual collaborator Andreas Neumann), the band are not the main characters for once. They’re here to compliment and show deference to these people buried 20 metres underground in 1786.”
Meanwhile, Queens Of The Stone Age are set to play two huge outdoor headline gigs at Sheffield’s Rock N Roll Circus this summer, shortly after topping the bill at Victorious Festival in Portsmouth.
The group will embark on a European tour later this year too, where they’ll also appear at numerous festivals such as Øya, Electric Castle, Lowlands, Pukkelpop and Rock En Seine.
In 2024, QOTSA were forced to cancel some live dates in Europe due to Homme requiring “emergency surgery”. The musician then returned to the stage last December for a Mark Lanegan tribute concert in London.
Queens’ first show back is currently scheduled for June 10 in Boston, Massachusetts. That same month, they’ll appear at Bonnaroo 2025 in Manchester, Tennessee, among other US dates.
