It’s hard to imagine a time when Queens of the Stone Age weren’t one of the most consistent and dominant forces in rock, so it’s fascinating to see this uncovered footage of QOTSA back when they were just a few guys out of the desert trying to make a name for themselves to a room full of industry.
According to Metal Insider, the McGathy Party was an annual event that would see emerging bands head to New York to play a set for radio programmers in the hope that they’d get some airplay.
This show, which took place in 1999, saw QOTSA play 45 minutes of material soon after the release of their self-titled debut, and features a few cuts from their follow-ups, Rated R and Songs For The Deaf.
Dressed all in white, a typically-confident Josh Homme quips early on that, being an industry party, they’d come dressed as lines of cocaine – although we can’t imagine anyone ducking off to the toilets for the duration of the gig.
The sound quality isn’t super crisp, but if you crank the bass up as far as it goes, it’s actually probably a decent enough representation of what the legendary venue might have sounded like, and what put QOTSA firmly on everyone’s radars ahead of their breakout sophomore effort.
Check out Queens of The Stone Age performing at CBGB in 1999:
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