All I can say is, thank the Lord for Superman. And a second thanks for not letting the re-animated corpses of Velvet Revolver take the Troubadour stage for the Rock Band party. Having suffered through a performance from the "might as well be Velvet Revolver" local outfit Camp Freddy at the PS3 launch, attending the EA and Xbox 360-sponsored E3 shindig made even me consider abusing heroin. It was that dire.

We were therefore thrilled to learn that hard rock outfit Queens of the Stone Age and semi-spin off Eagles of Death Metal would be delivering heavy doses of power rock to the crowd of E3 attendees and West Hollywood groupies.

Prior to the heavy metal rock treatment, guests were treated to a performance by Peter Moore and Harmonix employees on the game that spawned the event. Fortunately for Moore, he either had his pause button deactivated or he quickly learned how to actually play Rock Band. There were no vibe killing flubs from the MS exec this time. He was redeemed in the eyes of the small crowd.

Regrettably, since many were drunk already, they've most likely forgotten.

Eagles of Death Metal took the stage first, warming up the crowd and picking out that evening's ladies. While frontman Jesse Hughes warned the crowd he was really nervous, my suspicion is that he inhaled much of that night's jitters. That's rumor, of course. I'm sure he's clean as a crack pipe whistle. Regardless of whether Hughes was coming off a runner's high, the band played a stellar set.

Wrapping up the night's party was Queens of the Stone Age themselves. The short set was all hits, plus a few numbers from the recently released Era Vulgaris. Despite rumored appearances in both Guitar Hero III and Rock Band itself, lead Queen Josh Homme plead ignorance about the reason behind the night's event. Again, these kids were tighter and harder than leather.

By this point, Rock Band hero Moore had already departed. The rest of the gaming press and the female hangers-on were doing their best to give Microsoft, EA and MTV a hefty bar tab. I'm guessing they were successful.

My only regret is that Luke Plunkett wasn't there to flex his devil horns.