Friday, August 3: I took a road trip to Covington for a show by Interpol. Even though I think their new album, Our Love to Admire, has a few dead spots ("The Lighthouse," I'm thinking of you), I thought their performance was a fine show in an interesting venue. And it has to be said: A pleasantly high number of hot hipster girls were in attendance (I'm not made of stone, people). It it also has to be said: Carlos D's new frontier dandy look is not half as striking as the severe Eurofascist look he was sporting a couple years ago -- mainly because Brandon Flowers from the Killers beat him to it.

The venue, the Madison Theater, was pretty cool. It was sort of like Louisville's Palace without seats. My pal Shay and I were parked near the sound board. Opening band Calla were adequate, but as with most opening acts, nobody's there to see them, and they served more as a noisy distraction than anything.

Being the main event, Interpol was much more warmly received. Opening with "Pioneer to the Falls," the first cut from their new album, the band plowed through a set heavy on the hits. Second album Antics was especially well represented ("Evil" and "Not Even Jail" were highlights). In fact, the band seemed to be ignoring their debut album entirely until the very end of the show. Pace is indeed the trick, it would seem.

Set list:
Pioneer to the Falls
C'mere
Narc
Slow Hands
Rest My Chemistry
Mammoth
Public Pervert
Pace is the Trick
The Heinrich Maneuver
Evil
Not Even Jail
PDA
- - - - -
NYC
Obstacle 1
Stella Was a Diver

Sunday, August 5: I took a road trip to downtown Louisville for Queens of the Stone Age at Coyote's. II had always assumed Coyote's was a cowboy/biker bar. And it is, for the most part, but they've been booking rock shows of late (Modest Mouse are scheduled later this month).

Once agin, Shay was along for the ride, as was our pal Chris. We met at Chris's house in beautiful Jeffersonville, Indiana and had a few adult beverages before we crossed the river for a night of heavy rock.

Now, I enjoy QOTSA quite a bit, but I must admit that two of their last three albums have kind of left me underwhelmed. I was especially disappointed by their somewhat patchy third album, Songs for the Deaf, because it came after their start-to-finish brilliant second effort, Rated R. Happily, their newest effort, Era Vulgaris, is a return to form, with "I'm Designer," "Make It Wit Chu," "Turnin' on the Screw" and "3's & 7's" all being strong favorites.

So anyway, I was pretty psyched to see them play live -- especially material from Rated R. I figured "Feel Good Hit of the Summer" and "Lost Art of Keeping a Secret" were both guaranteed, but I was hoping maybe they'd throw in "Auto Pilot" or "Monsters in the Parasol" as well.

The joke was on me: QOTSA completely ignored Rated R. Thanks, guys!

Now, on a certain level, I can appreciate what QOTSA did, because a quick visit to the message board on the band's web site, it's apprent that the band does not play the same perfunctory set from town to town. People who attend multiple gigs get to see multiple sets. But unfortunately, this is most likely the only QOTSA show I'm going to see on this tour, and I didn't get to hear "Feel Good Hit of the Summer."

Whatever. It was still a decent show -- they played a lot of stuff from the new disc -- but also a letdown. This never wopuld have happened if Nick Oliveri was still in the band.

Set list:
Regular John
Do It Again
First It Giveth
Tangled Up in Plaid
3's & 7's
Avon
Into the Hollow
Misfit Love
Suture Up Your Future
Burn the Witch
Turnin' on the Screw
The Fun Machine...
Little Sister
Sick, Sick, Sick
Go with the Flow
- - - - -
No One Knows
Song for the Dead