I saw Queensryche, tonight, on their "An Evening with Queensryche" tour. It was awesome. We got to the Electric Factory at about 19:15 for the 20:00 show, and the line was already around the building. Almost as soon as we got out of the cab, some guy in line handed me a can of beer. Awesome!
The line moved pretty quickly. Most of the people were heading upstairs, so we weren't too far from the stage. We stood around for a while, until the band came on stage around 20:15. Just before they started, the sound system was playing a (probably post-Empire) song that I didn't recognize; something like "Good Gracious." Maybe it was from Tate's solo album?
They came on and did another song I didn't know, then Empire, Another Rainy Night, Open, something I didn't know, Take Hold of the Flame, When the Rain Comes, Lame Time in Paris, and Silent Lucidity. There was a fifteen minute break (which seemed to take forever) and then they came back. While the MC announced the second half, someone rushed the stage and took the mic. Security dragged him off stage, followed by a guy in scrubs with a syringe. The mic-grabber turned out, of course, to be Nikki.
They performed Operation: Mindcrime in its entirety, and it was good. Once or twice it was too much, and the version of Electric Requiem they did was totally different or wrong or something. Still, it was awesome to get to see Mindcrime performed. The best part was Revolution Calling.
See, I think that Geoff Tate has an awesome voice, but it was often hard to really hear well over the incredibly loud drums and guitars. In Revolution Calling, you could hear him clearly, but the massive speakers got to do their jobs, too. With every beat in the military cadence of the song, my ribs shook. It was like a wall of sound. The jumbotron showed video footage of the wars in Iraq, protests, and the Presidents Bush while Tate sang that it was time to burn the White House down. It was surreal and fantastic.
In the first half, Take Hold had a similar effect. Everyone was shaking his fist in the air and shouting "TAKE HOLD!"
Once they finished Mindcrime, they all came out and took a bow. (The woman who did the voice of Mary was with them again, Pamela something.) After they left the stage, they played some of the Revolution Calling jumbotron footage again, under "Hostage," a song from the forthcoming Mindcrime II. I will buy it.
After the concert, my legs and feet were killing me. After a few blocks of walking, though, they were feeling better. We hit the South Street Diner and I ate too much: scrapple, eggs, grits, and a slice of cake.
The bus ride down here wasn't very exciting, which is good. It gave me a chance to find a lot of problems with MacSword. We got lunch when I arrived, watched some Law and Order, and walked up and down South Street.
Anyway, it's really late and I'm pretty tired. Maybe I'll have more to say about today, tomorrow.
Re:I saw them here in Minneapolis
rjbs on 2005-02-06T18:20:07
I have reviewed Screaming in Digital and I'm pretty sure that wasn't played. I don't think I'll be able to recognized it if I hear it anymore, but I'm pretty sure that it/wasn't/ that.
Oh well! It was good.
I'm sort of worried about MC2, but... hey, whatever!
