Road Reports Archive

Queensryche
Beacon Theater . New York, USA

For my first concert and Road Report of the year 2005, I cannot think of any better way to kick it off than by seeing Queensryche perform in a theatre setting. For the past few years, the Ryche as fans refer to them, have made sure to make the Beacon Theater in NYC a stopping point. Considering I was only at a Queensryche performance a couple of months ago, the thought had come for me to pass on this one. When the news became clear that the group would be playing the evening alone and perform the entire “Operation: Mindcrime” CD, my decision was clear. I was glad that I did, for this was a night with little disappointment and a larger number of highlights.

Broken into two sets the group first hit the stage and was in top form as they brought forth a large amount of tunes from other CD’s in the catalog. Out of the 9 numbers, 4 would be from “Empire”. Clearly as a hit record, they need to play some of the tunes on it. Yet, I would have liked to see a little more expansion from the rest of the catalog. Especially since the main part of the show would be spent playing Mindcrime. In my opinion, “Rage For Order” and the stellar tracks from this CD have been avoided for far too long. There has also been limited attention to the earliest tracks like “Lady Wore Black” and “Queen Of The Reich”. Perhaps Geoff can’t hit those notes these days, but it will still be nice to see them played once more. That was about my only complaint since the rest of the night was to be stellar.

At the break, someone ran onto the Stage and started screaming into the microphone. This clearly shook up the audience a little especially after the recent Dimebag tragedy. However, this man was quickly attacked and sedated by the orderlies and set aside to the stage exit. We soon realized we were fooled and Mindcrime was off and running. Not only would the music be played from the CD, but video footage shown above and several actors filling in parts that you could only imagine before in your mind. This made the performance a total cerebral experience for me as this is clearly the most renknown of the QR catalog. Released in 1988, it still maintains a fresh and powerful sound today. It is worthy of its respect.

Pamela Moore was again to join the band for this performance and it was great since she was also doing some of the acting. She is Mary from the piece and she did a great job of the singing not only her main songs but some of the others were she provided backup. The song “Suite Sister Mary” was like watching a Broadway version, as she and Tate motioned through the song. Very powerful and done to the point of excellence. Queensryche also addresses who killed Mary during the performance but I shall not ruin that sort of information here. You can find out for yourself and form your own thoughts on it.

All in all, everyone was at their playing best. The lighting and sound were done right. The Ryche have been at this long enough to know what works. Geoff made mention that the band has been together for over 20 years. Who would have ever thought this possible? It seems as though Tate, Rockenfield, Wilton, Jackson and Stone shall be around to entertain us even longer than the critics had anticipated. I did find a point of sadness that Chris DeGarmo was not part of this tour. After all he was such an integral part of this records success so I would have liked to see him play on it as well. They could have done the same thing as Maiden did and added the third guitarist. When the band left the stage the audience was treated to a sampling of the forthcoming “Mindcrime II”. I found it difficult to focus on it in the hectic crowd. It is my hope that this tour finds its way to a DVD like the last two had done.

Set List:
1.    Whisper
2.    Empire
3.    Another Rainy Night
4.    Open
5.    Take Hold Of The Flame
6.    In The Rain
7.    Jet City Woman
8.    Last Night In Paris
9.    Silent Lucidity
10.    I Remember Now
11.    Anarchy X
12.    Revolution Calling
13.    Operation: Mindcrime
14.    Speak
15.    Spreading The Disease
16.    The Mission
17.    Suite Sister Mary
18.    The Needle Lies
19.    Electric Requiem
20.    Breaking The Silence
21.    I Don’t Believe In Love
22.    Waiting For 22
23.    My Empty Room
24.    Eyes Of A Stranger


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