They played in the evening on the second stage, not the larger main stage where I would see them play the next year. By the time of QOTSA’s set, I’d already been seeing bands play all day and it was time to eat. I remember grabbing some kind of food and sitting down near the edge of the area where the crowd was gathered to see them. As we ate and watched the band play, the sun was setting in the mountains behind them, the perfect setting for their thundering desert rock. I gradually realized that I was watching one of the best rock bands I’d ever seen.