A Benefit Concert for Sweet Stuff Foundation
The Belasco
Los Angeles
March 20, 2024
Photos and Review by ALYSON CAMUS
LOS ANGELES – On Wednesday night, Joshua Homme teased us until the end of the show: “This night is gonna be full of surprises … Sir Paul McCartney … is not here tonight!”
But with or without McCartney, Josh Homme and Friends, A Benefit Concert for Sweet Stuff Foundation, proved how many celebs the Queens of the Stone Age frontman counts in his social circle. It was a night that fans, friends, and family, who packed The Belasco in downtown Los Angeles, will long remember.
The event was a benefit show for The Sweet Stuff Foundation, a Palm Desert-based charity dedicated to helping musicians and their families struggling with illness and disability.
Homme was the host for the night and he mostly stayed on stage the entire night, wearing no less than two elegant tuxedos, one black, one white, charming the audience with an undeniable master-of-ceremony charisma.
“I didn’t get the tuxedo memo,” said Dave Grohl, who wore his usual black T-shirt and jeans. Ultra-chic Joshua was visibly at the top of his game, introducing his friends all night long, among them many familiar musicians and some comedians.
When he explained the origin of his charity, Homme talked about the time his band lost one of its dear members.
“When Queens lost the band member Natasha Schneider, bless her heart she had cancer, it was tough, man,” Homme said. “It was tough to give her the help… the government always gets in the way, as they always do… Honestly, lots of times when you play music, you ain’t so good at doing math, so you could write a song that would crush all your hearts, but you got nowhere to go.”
The Sweet Stuff Foundation was founded to palliate this problem and the night was a total success.
“The rest of tonight is just a way to say thank you so much for doing the hard work,” Homme said. “The good work was all done by you, you donated and it’s going to be over $250,000!”
Despite the heavy subject, everyone wanted to have fun and the tone of the night was indeed fun, comedy, and pure gold entertainment.
Justin Willman, creator of the hit Netflix series “Magic for Humans,” teased the audience with a few magic tricks, and then there was another surprise: Ryder Homme’s school band was introduced by a proud father as “the winner of the Thousand Oaks battle of the band competition.”
They covered Led Zeppelin (“Immigrant Song”) and Black Sabbath (“War Pigs”) with an energy that only 13-year-olds can embody. Ryder made his father proud with his excellent skills on drums, while the band’s tiny frontman was truly one of a kind, jumping on the mic like an experienced rockstar.
Homme was joined on stage by close friend Jesse Hughes, AKA Boots Electric of the Eagles of Death Metal, and the duo covered “Stuck in the Middle with You.”
“I’d like to try something that’s never been done in front of my face,” Homme said to Hughes after their first song. “I’d like to actually play drums on you. Is that OK?” And they performed Eagles of Death Metal’s “So Easy” with Jesse as a human drum.
This was followed by The Kills, who did stripped-down renditions of “New York” and “Baby Says,” and songstress Alison Mosshart graced the audience with her beautiful voice and unique moves.
“I told you there would be surprises,” Homme said while introducing the house band, The Sweet Stuffers, the super group of the night, with Joshua on vocals, Michael Shuman on on bass, Troy Van Leeuwen on guitar, Artic Monkeys’ Matt Helders on drums, Mini Mansions’ Tyler Parkford and Tennis legend John McEnroe on guitar.
The Sweet Stuffers took the stage with another unexpected cover, Gerry Rafferty’s “Right Down the Line.” Beck soon joined them for his own “Fume.”
“So Josh asked me to play two songs from 1992 that no one has heard,” Beck said before singing an old tune of his, “Hollow Log.” It was truly a love fest between the two musicians.
“I’m a big lover of you,” Beck said to Homme after the debonair emcee had confessed his admiration for Mr. Hansen. Showing interesting dance moves, they covered together Seals & Crofts’ “Summer Breeze.” It was not the time for hits, but rather obscure songs and fun covers delivered with a laid-back attitude and witty banter.
The always-funny Sarah Silverman, one of Homme’s “favorite comedians of all time” gave us a “seven minutes of stand up in the middle of this incredible rock show,” trying new material, mostly about sex, death, and even Hitler.
The spectacular St. Vincent treated the audience to a very intimate “Crazy,” a Patsy Cline’s cover into which she injected her very peculiar style, a mix of sex appeal and sweetness.
“I wanna get divorced with you so bad! Holy shit!” Homme said, “You just saw something truly crazy, I gotta tell you St. Vincent is such an assassin, such a badass bitch!” and this was an impressive compliment coming from him.
“The next person I’d like to bring up here is a friend of mine for 20 years and I played a lot of music with this person and frankly they’re not just the best drummer.” The highly anticipated Dave Grohl showed up with Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith, “What are you fucking both doing here?” joked Joshua… “This is so Chad Smith!” A drumming competition followed between Grohl and Smith who comically looked at each other, pissed off to be playing at their respective drum sets.
“Don’t encourage them!” Joshua screamed at the crowd “But I was gonna bring out the world’s greatest drummer … ladies and gentlemen Mr. Bill Burr!” he added in a sarcastic tone,
During a high-energy moment, Patty Smyth, her husband John McEnroe, and their daughter covered The Go‐Go’s song “Our Lips Are Sealed” and “We Got the Beat” with Bill Burr on drums. In between sets, the comedian sort of insulted our obsessive use of phones: “You’re filming my act. I’m gonna get in trouble here. I just ended my career… put your phone down, you are way too old for whatever you are on… social media!”
Joshua reintroduced the Foo Fighters frontman Grohl with: “You may think he’s the nicest guy in Rock N Roll, but I think he is my brother.” With Homme wearing a blonde afro wig, the two men joked around during a parody cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence.”
“I thought they were just one person Simon and Garfunkel!” Homme joked. “Can I be both of them?”
“Well you kind of are,” Grohl replied.
“Yeah, I harmonize with myself in the shower,” Homme said.
Grohl introduced an original song at the event.
“I spent a couple of days trying to figure out like what the fuck am I gonna play,” Grohl said, explaining the next song he would play. “I was like, you know, I’m gonna come out and I’m gonna do a fucking Doja Cat song and I spent days trying to learn those fucking rich lyrics. I was actually on Spotify at fucking 3 in the morning on a weird playlist that said ‘Great Acoustic Covers,’ trying to figure out what the fuck am I gonna do for this thing. And so, I thought, instead of learning something which I’ll totally forget, I’ll write something. So, I did something that’s maybe considered really, really uncool, I wrote a song that’s really genuine and earnest about my friend Josh.”
And Grohl debuted a brotherly-love new song, specially written about Homme for the occasion, called “I’ve Got You Man,” something that made the QOTSA frontman cry: “You just heard an original song by Dave Grohl about an amazing human being he totally surprised me with, to make me look like a total cunt.”
The entire cast came together for The Zombies’ “Time of the Season,” and after Chad Smith’s drum solo, Homme stopped the music and joked, “You took the song and you just fucking hijacked it. That was a sexy tune, and you just fucking took it to Fresno.”
Everyone came back on stage for a grand final with “Hey Jude,” finally a McCartney tune.
“I’ve had a very difficult five years,” he said. “I wanna celebrate one person: My mother!”
At that point Homme brought a reluctant and very emotional Irene Homme on stage. And with his mother and his young son by his side, Homme wrapped up The Sweet Stuff benefit, which proved the power of friends and family. It was a great show for the fans for a great cause. Nobody should miss this show next year.
For more information go to The Sweet Stuff Foundation.