2007年 May 29日 Tuesday, 22:23
A few days ago, I attended my first Queensrÿche show. I have been a fan of the band for quite a few years, but for some reason I never spent the time/money to see one of their live shows (something which I now regret).
The first interesting point was the location of this venue. Whoever's idea it was to open a concert venue right in the middle of fucking Disneyland needs to die a slow, horrible death. After about an hour of driving around, I realized that I actually had to park in the "Mickey and Friends" garage and then walk to the venue, which I found to be borderline ridiculous. At any rate, I eventually found the venue (and then stood in the wrong line for another 30 minutes, not a great start to the evening so far) and waited for the show to start. We were let in at 8:00pm, and an hour later, the lights dimmed and Queensrÿche took the stage.
There was some argument among the crowd as to whether they would be performing the same setlist as previous shows, playing all of Operation: Mindcrime and its "sequel" Operation: Mindcrime II, but as soon as the first notes of The Whisper rang out, we all knew it was going to be something different.
The first thing that really caught my attention was Geoff Tate. This man is a fantastic singer on album, but I had heard that he wasn't quite the live singer he used to be. I have to say, however, nothing I heard that night lent any credibility to these statements. He tore through even the oldest and most difficult-to-sing songs in their catalogue with great aplomb, with The Whisper being one of his standout performances of the evening. After that, however, things got a little different.
For the first hour of the show, excepting the aforementioned The Whisper and Breaking the Silence, the band seemed to be playing a "The Worst of Queensrÿche" set. I may be a little biased in saying this as I don't care for their more recent works, but the band chose to play some extremely obscure non-album tracks from their more recent efforts that most of the crowd didn't recognize, and none of the crowd seemed to appreciate. After the first 9 songs, I was beginning to fear the whole evening would be like this, but after a little story about how the next song came about, Tate announced The Lady Wore Black off their fantastic debut EP, which was met with a deafening roar by the crowd. After a few more recent songs, the show really began to pick up with Another Rainy Night (Without You).
From that point on, the show turned into something really incredible, and it became apparent how this band got as hugely popular as it did in the late 80s. Although I was always more a fan of their earlier outings like Queensrÿche and The Warning, the material off their more commercial outings Operation: Mindcrime and Empire worked very well in a live setting, with plenty of audience participation.
I guess it's time to mention the setlist:
The Whisper
Damaged
Breaking the Silence
I'm American
Sign of the Times
Desert Dance
When the Rain Comes...
Bridge
Until There Was You
The Lady Wore Black
Real World
The Right Side of My Mind
The Hands
Another Rainy Night (Without You)
I Don't Believe in Love
Eyes of a Stranger
Empire
Walk in the Shadows
Take Hold of the Flame
Jet City Woman
Silent Lucidity
So all in all, it was a very good show. One thing I thought was sort of weird was that Tate came out with long hair, last I checked it was short (a wig perhaps? LOL). The setlist towards the beginning of the show was a little disappointing, and some classics like Queen of the Reich and Revolution Calling were sorely missed. Also, their new guitarist is terribly uninteresting and looks like he might be Joe Satriani in disguise. Regardless, this is probably the only opportunity I'll have to see Queensrÿche perform in a club as opposed to an arena, and it's a show I think I'll remember for a long time.