Live And In The Flesh
Vista Chino - September 25, 2013
Almost two years to the date of getting to see Kyuss Lives!, and only two weeks after seeing Queens of the Stone Age out on the road during their …Like Clockwork Tour. We were lucky enough to catch John Garcia and Brant Bjork back out on the road together again, this time as Vista Chino! After settling a legal dispute with former Kyuss member and Queens of the Stone Age kingpin Josh Homme over the use of the Kyuss Lives! name, Garcia and Bjork had ended up with this "new" project. The project would consist of all the same members of the short lived Kyuss Lives! venture, John Garcia, Brant Bjork, Bruno Fevery and Nick Oliveri. Nick ended up leaving the band shortly before the release of their debut album Peace, leaving the door open for Mike Dean of Corrosion of Conformity to fill his role.
The new album was set to drop just over two weeks before the show so we had enough time to let it wear out our stereos before showtime. We were pretty excited to hear that the band would be coming through Ottawa's Ritual Nightclub of all places! What an amazing venue to house this band, I couldn't believe we would be getting to see Garcia and Bjork so up close and personal! Maybe we would even be lucky enough to hear a few old Kyuss jams.
Black Pussy was set to open up for them throughout their fall tour. We weren't too familiar with them at the time, but they certainly put on quite a show! I was a fan by the end of their set and made sure to pick up one of their vinyl over at the merch booth before the end of the night. Always enjoy a good opener to help get warmed up!
There wasn't much of a break between Black Pussy's set and Vista Chino taking the stage. Adara was the opening track to their set and it had us fired up! We were situated over at our usual spot for shows down at Ritual, mere feet away from the stage. We could see everything perfectly. Then out of nowhere the opening notes to a classic Kyuss jam from …And the Circus Leaves Town starts up, One Inch Man! How could they not bust out some Kyuss material from their earlier days! We knew we were in for one spectacular show after they were only two tracks into their set.
Dargona Dragona, another track from Vista Chino's Peace album came up next following it up with Hurricane, another Kyuss classic. They bounced back and forth between Vista Chino and Kyuss tracks all night long and all of that newer material fit right in with those stellar classic jams we all loved so much. We ended up seeing more than half of their new album live! It was way more than we could ever ask for, not to mention all of the killer Kyuss tunes thrown into the mix. Gardenia, Asteroid, Supa Scoopa and Mighty Scoop, Thumb, Green Machine and Freedom Run, bringing it up to ten Kyuss songs throughout their sixteen song setlist. Planets 1 & 2, my favourite track off of Vista Chino's Peace album started up the encore. Garcia stood right beside us as Brant Bjork worked his way through the first part of the track before John took to the stage to join him on the second half. They finished the night off with Whitewater and Odyssey from Welcome to Sky Valley. We didn't get to hear any additional Kyuss jams that we hadn't already heard at the Kyuss Lives! show a few years back, but how could anyone ask for a better way to finish a show than this? Looking forward to the next time I'm able to catch Garcia and Bjork back out on the road again, whether it be together or on their own, I surely won't miss it!