nuke_diver
Riding Solo
This is a review of the concert I went to last night in San Jose. First some disclaimers I am a Queen Fanboy and believe that Fredde Mercury may have been one of the finest rock singers of all time. Secondly I saw Paul Rogers play with Queen... Thirdly I am a huge Brian May fan..which explains why I saw Paul Rogers with Queen. When I go to concerts I go to have fun so I'm going to do my best to enjoy myself.
Finally I never saw Queen live with Freddie
So to the concert. I won't debate whether this is or is not a Queen cover band there are valid arguments both ways IMO. The band started with Now I'm Here..a surprising choice for me and I thought an excellent one. They quickly moved to Stone Cold Crazy and I already saw that Lambert was a much much better fit to the music and style that Queen is. He has a great set of pipes and is campy enough to be similar to Freddie. Is he as good, no I cannot say that...no one has the swagger that Freddie had. But he fit well and brought some of his own style too the band too. I won't go through all the songs there where about 24 or so I think and Lambert did not sing on some of them . The setlist I felt was excellent with a lot of things that I was not expecting them to play. As some examples Those were the Days of our Lives sung by Roger with a wonderful video of the band back in the 70's and 80's. It seemed personal and was appropriate that either Roger or Brian sang it. Under Pressure was very well done with Roger doing the Bowie parts. Bohemian Rhapsody was started by Ryan then they switched to a Freddie video then back to Ryan perfectly and seamlessly and the voices were so well matched.
Brian played 39 and Love of my Life on an acoustic 12 string which was very nicely done (he sang) and his guitar solo showed his mastery of delay. This I think the non musicians were not so impressed with but as a guitarist I was in awe. Roger did a drum solo/duet with his son(?) and the kid was excellent. The kid also played the main drums in Tie Your Mother Down.
This is a longer post than I thought so I'll wrap it up. My final word is that if you like Queen and you can go, do it. It was well worth going. I had a great time. My wife enjoyed it and she doesn't care for loud music (and it was very loud for her).
Finally I never saw Queen live with Freddie
So to the concert. I won't debate whether this is or is not a Queen cover band there are valid arguments both ways IMO. The band started with Now I'm Here..a surprising choice for me and I thought an excellent one. They quickly moved to Stone Cold Crazy and I already saw that Lambert was a much much better fit to the music and style that Queen is. He has a great set of pipes and is campy enough to be similar to Freddie. Is he as good, no I cannot say that...no one has the swagger that Freddie had. But he fit well and brought some of his own style too the band too. I won't go through all the songs there where about 24 or so I think and Lambert did not sing on some of them . The setlist I felt was excellent with a lot of things that I was not expecting them to play. As some examples Those were the Days of our Lives sung by Roger with a wonderful video of the band back in the 70's and 80's. It seemed personal and was appropriate that either Roger or Brian sang it. Under Pressure was very well done with Roger doing the Bowie parts. Bohemian Rhapsody was started by Ryan then they switched to a Freddie video then back to Ryan perfectly and seamlessly and the voices were so well matched.
Brian played 39 and Love of my Life on an acoustic 12 string which was very nicely done (he sang) and his guitar solo showed his mastery of delay. This I think the non musicians were not so impressed with but as a guitarist I was in awe. Roger did a drum solo/duet with his son(?) and the kid was excellent. The kid also played the main drums in Tie Your Mother Down.
This is a longer post than I thought so I'll wrap it up. My final word is that if you like Queen and you can go, do it. It was well worth going. I had a great time. My wife enjoyed it and she doesn't care for loud music (and it was very loud for her).
