Queens of the Stone Age: Salt Mine Show

Queens of the Stone Age, Era Vulgaris, November 20, 2007. On that night the band left arenas behind to perform a stripped-down, headline-grabbing set 2300 feet below the surface at the Erlebnisbergwerk Glückauf salt mine in Sondershausen.

Why should a music fan care? The gig rewired how the band approached live dynamics: it was part contest, part stunt and entirely about reshaping familiar songs in an extreme acoustic and visual setting. The performance came during a heavy 2007 touring year — the group played 115 shows that year — but this one was engineered to be unforgettable. Interscope Records ran a contest that handed out 300 tickets to fans, and getting the gear and crew down into the cavern took almost a day so instruments could settle into the mine’s conditions.

Onstage the band traded sweeping arena arrangements for a semi-acoustic format that quickly turned heavier as the crowd warmed up. The 14-song set mixed tracks from Era Vulgaris with rarities and covers, including Billy Idol’s White Wedding and Tom Waits’ Goin’ Out West. Footage was recorded for future release: a teaser surfaced in early 2008, but the full show has since been described as locked away in Germany.

“We were looking for something good to do that was off-kilter and bizarre, somewhere to play that would be very special,” Josh Homme said of the idea.

The venue itself shaped the night. The mine’s carved chambers, spiral patterns from excavation machines and cavernous geometry created a psychedelic, subterranean stage — a place the band framed as a celebration of miners and hard work. The audience, issued safety hats and high-visibility jackets to reach the performance level, watched a set that stretched the band’s song choices and arrangements.

Logistics and mood made the show a one-off: equipment had to acclimate to the mine, the band rehearsed alternate arrangements, and the space nudged the group toward unusual covers and deep cuts. The evening also fits a pattern: during that Era Vulgaris run QOTSA sought out nontraditional venues — castles, churches and an old slaughterhouse were all on the list — each designed to test how their songs survive strange acoustics and smaller, intense crowds.

Nearly two decades later the band added another underground milestone by playing in the Catacombs of Paris on July 8, 2024, but the Sondershausen salt-mine performance remains one of the era’s most singular rock moments.