Concert Review
Queensrÿche
The Showroom
Turning Stone Casino
Verona, NY
Wednesday June 5, 2013
Review/Photos: Joseph Suto
To say I was a little skeptical in seeing Geoff Tate and his version of Queensrÿche perform their landmark concept album Operation: Mindcrime in full was well, putting it mildly. After all I’ve seen it performed before a few times but that was with all the musicians who recorded it. Tate and his new band not only pulled it off, but left the fans begging for more. On tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of Operation: Mindcrime, Tate chose to skip over the recently released Frequency Unknown and concentrated on Mindcrime as well as an encore that featured some of their best known songs.
The new band featured the Sarzo brothers bassist Rudy and guitarist Robert. Kelly Gray, has returned to the fold on guitar along with keyboardist Randy Gane who both have played with Tate in his solo band. One noteworthy addition to the lineup was drummer Brian Tichy who was on board for just his second show. Tichy is filling in for Simon Wright who had prior commitments for June. As an added treat Canadian songstress Sass Jordan joined the band playing the part of Mary in “Suite Sister Mary.”
The band came out hard and strong as Tate delivered his patented renditions of “Revolution Calling” and “Operation Mindcrime” which had the crowd eating out of his palm from the start. Tate’s vocals sounded better than the past few times I have seen him in the live setting. Perhaps the true test was when the band cranked out the turbo charged version of “The Needle Lies”. Not an easy song to sing but it sounded as good as it ever has.
The band returned for an encore that started with the bands biggest hit “Silent Lucidity” and closed with the title track from their illustrious Empire album. Probably the most surprising song of the set was “Best I Can”. A stellar track that has only been performed on a few tours over the past decade it was a treat indeed.
This show is highly recommended for Mindcrime fans as well as casual Queenrÿche fans as both will leave satisfied. The only downfall of the evening was the S.U.N. acoustic set that did not take place. S.U.N. (Something Unto Nothing) featuring Sass Jordan and Brian Tichy were not able to perform as the casino decided against it opting to allow The Voodoos to open with a strong but short four song set.
Set List
I Remember Now
Anarchy-X
Revolution Calling
Operation: Mindcrime
Speak
Spreading The Disease
The Mission
Suite Sister Mary
The Needle Lies
Electric Requiem
Breaking The Silence
I Don’t Believe In Love
Waiting For 22
My Empty Room
Eyes Of A Stranger
Encore
Silent Lucidity
Best I Can
I’m American
Jet City Woman
Empire
Click Here for a new interview with Geoff Tate conducted a few days ago.
