Paul "H.R." Hudson

In November 2013, I saw one of my favourite ever bands Queens of the Stone Age play at Wembley Arena. This meant that I had never seen Nick Oliveri play live, so was stuck with the songs he sings and screams on Rated R and Songs for the Deaf amongst his other work, along with the image of him playing bare naked save for the bass guitar over where it mattered in the video for 'First It Giveth'. Well, turns out he decided to give a visit to Harlow, Essex. He described the town as feeling closer to his heart, more akin to the Desert with a capital D that he was used to, than some of the other gigs he has played. Whether he says this in every place he goes I do not know, but it seemed genuine and Harlow does have a certain reputation, so the packed, lively crowd fully appreciated it.
This set the tone for his brilliant on-stage banter, which included telling an excellent joke about a police chase which I forget the punchline of, and downing a tequila cocktail handed to him by an audience member. He acted and p[layed like the missing piece of Queens of the Stone Age, whilst showing a nice humility between songs. 'Nice' could cer6tainly not describe the majority of his setlist, which took in Kyuss, Mondo Generator, Dwarves, one of his own songs and plenty of QOTSA tunes. His throaty scream was impressive and frightening throughout, as was the juxtaposition between this and his elegant singing voice. This shone through with 'Autopilot', which I feel bad for forgetting the name of the person Nick dedicated the song to and who it was written for who had passed away when he wrote it. Anothyer mention must go to when he (apparently exclusively) invited audience members to pour onto the stage and go absolutely wild to 'Feel Good Hit of the Summer'. I am sure if you know the song you can imagine how amazing this was, to be up on stage with this devillish, screaming genius. 'Death Acoustic' indeed...