I told myself I would write this up within a day after the concert, so here it is nearly three weeks later.
Within the past year and a half or so, I’ve seen Queensryche three times now. In early 2008 they played the Voodoo Lounge in Kansas City with Don Dokken opening with an acoustic set. Queensrcyhe played a great set, playing songs from all their albums with a lot of lesser-known tracks thrown in. Everything clicked for them that night and the crowd was really into it.
Back in the fall they played a radio station’s Halloween concern with Tesla. The crowd was absolutely insane and their set focused mainly on their hits. A good show, but not as good as the one before.
When I heard they were coming again in April I wasn’t sure if I was going to go. For some reason a lot of shows had been booked on the same night - Lamb of God/Children of Bodom/God Forbid which would have been nice to see, and also Reverend Horton Heat in Lawrence which would just be down the street for me. I decided on Queensryche mainly because some friends were going and also due to the set that was planned. Queensryche had posted on their website that the tour would consist of songs from three of their albums: Rage for Order, Empire, and their new one, American Soldier. Rage for Order has always been my favorite Queensryche album and has always been woefully under-represented in concert, so that clinched it for me.
The order of the three albums wasn’t hard to guess - they started off with Rage for Order. The first thing I noticed is that Queensryche has now become one of those bands that adds extra people on stage - since the departure of their latest guitarist they’ve replaced him with a non-member guitarist and a guy playing keyboards and guitars. In almost every case where this happens it bugs me. They didn’t need anyone previously, and the addition of the extra people makes it feel like I’m seeing Queensryche featuring Geoff Tate instead of Queensryche the band.
Despite my gripe, everything sounded good. They played six songs from Rage then started with the songs from American Soldier. I only had the album for a week or so before the show so the songs hadn’t grown on me, but the songs from it sounded much better live than the studio versions. Unlike a lot of older bands, the crowd seemed to be into the new material which is cool. Geoff Tate even made a comment about it and you could see that he appreciated it.
Finally they wrapped up the show with songs from Empire. Even though there are certain songs that you know they’re going to have to play (”Silent Lucidity”, “Jet City Woman”, and “Empire”) they still pulled out some songs that I hadn’t heard them play in a while. For the encore they played “Take Hold of the Flame” and “Empire”, wrapping up a great show.
Here’s the complete set list:
Neue Regel
The Whisper
I Dream In Infrared
Screaming In Digital
Walk In The Shadows
I Will Remember
Surgical Strike
Sliver
The Killer
If I Were King
Man Down
Dead Man’s Words
Home Again
The Voice
Best I Can
The Thin Line
One And Only
Hand On Heart
Silent Lucidity
Jet City Woman
Anybody Listening?
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Empire
Take Hold Of The Flame
Out of all the hard rock bands that were big in the 80s, Queensryche is one of the few that can still pull it off and don’t feel like a nostalgia show. They’re still putting out new material and the shows don’t feel like they’re just going through the motions. They played for over two hours, which is nice considering a lot of bands like to pack it in after just an hour and a half. Three times in a year and a half may be too much in too short a time, but I’ll definately check them out in the future.