Artist: Queensryche, American Soldier Tour
Date: April 26, 2009
Venue: The Depot, Salt Lake City, UT
Reviewer: Shauna Brock
Links: www.queensryche.com / www.myspace.com/queensryche
Date: April 26, 2009
Venue: The Depot, Salt Lake City, UT
Reviewer: Shauna Brock
Links: www.queensryche.com / www.myspace.com/queensryche
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There's a reason Queensryche's cult-like following is still going strong even after the sparkle has faded on the shimmering glory of the Empire years: the songs they sing night after night after night matter. They are strong and they are bold and they are relevant and they prove time and again that Queensryche is not in fact one of the hair-bands gone by but a band with something important to say about the life that we are careening toward. The band that has always demanded conscious thought about any and all issues relating to politics, technology, and war is once again expecting no less than a full and devoted mental process with their latest album and tour. Most people have yet to realize the importance of this band of brothers save for the cult of fans who attend every show, a cult that while showing age and history also shows something else very key to the spread of any knowledge: youth. And with the release of American Soldier earlier this year, once again the multi-generational relevance of the band is at the forefront. Reaching out to veterans and current soldiers with the latest album, American Soldier, Queensryche took to the road with this tour and paired songs from the album with songs from the classic, Rage for Order (released in 1986). The two albums seem at first to be an antithesis of each other, but instead the music comes together in a perfect mix of thought and head banging metal. While American Soldier is definitely the focus, as it should be, the classics from Rage for Order, which question technology's influence on the mass mindset and question our mass mindset of sending soldiers to battle, combine perfectly to create the usual mind-fuck that you expect at a Queensryche show. The veterans, joined on stage by new blood in guitarist Parker Lundgren and keyboardist Jason Ames (both of whom have worked with Geoff Tate on his solo projects), were invigorated, excited, energized, and overall - having fun. Still carrying the right amount of attitude (Michael Wilton's hair is always in his face, Parker Lundgren makes neck tattoos sexy, and Eddie Jackson moves in and out of the stage shadows like every good bass player) they came together to tell story after story about everything from the camaraderie of fallen soldiers to the dangers of encroaching technology. But when Emily Tate, Geoff's daughter (who makes an appearance on American Soldier) joined them on stage for "Home Again," the feeling of family was driven home. The four original members of Queensryche have been through hell and back together and like the metal soldiers they are, they keep going forward. They've lost people in the fight, but they're still standing and still telling their stories and now there is a whole generation of new listeners who are ready to hear what they have to say. As the lights dimmed and the opening chords of "Neue Regel" shattered the crowd's eardrums, on a screen above the stage, the familiar, stark Rage for Order logo let the audience know they were being whisked back twenty years to lyrics that are even more relevant now than when the album was written. The songs in the Rage for Order Suite (which included favorites such as "Walk in the Shadows," "Surgical Strike," and the prophetic ballad "I Will Remember") had fans pushing and jumping. Live, "Screaming in Digital" became the eerie, haunting warning of the obsession of the digital world it is meant to be as a zombie like image was superimposed over Tate's face on the screen above. "I Dream in Infrared" echoed from the walls of the Depot as the crowd sang along. And even though the songs were recorded twenty years ago, when Geoff Tate's voice was young and not yet worn out from nearly thirty years of overuse and touring, he carried the songs with a poise and maturity that made up for the slight rearranging to match his vocal tones. To this day, there are only a small number of singers who can match his vocal style and power and those that attempt to copy him reveal themselves for what they are - frauds and fakers in a world where only a few are chosen to tread. As the lights faded to black following "I Will Remember," an image of the cover of American Soldier took over the big screen behind the drum kit. A spotlight came up on stage left and a soldier dressed in desert fatigues marched lock-step to center stage. He snapped to attention, saluted, and then screamed into the microphone. "On your feet!" Came through the amplifiers and as American Soldier begins, so did this passionate, energetic part of the show. Performing album powerhouses such as "Sliver" and "The Killer" and "If I Were King" while images of soldiers and the propaganda of the US government flickered behind them, Queensryche demanded more than thought with this performance, they demanded respect for the thousands of men and women who risk their lives so that we can go to a concert and drink a beer and then go home to blog about it. But it was the performances of "Dead Man's Words" and "Home Again" that left the audience stunned. Tate's introduction of "Dead Man's Words" was emotional and the crack in his voice was real despite the obvious fact that it was well-rehearsed. "Dead Man's Words" tells the story of how the Marines don't leave anyone behind and so when a man went down in the desert in Iraq, three men volunteered to go get him. Only one came back. On "Home Again", Geoff's young daughter, Emily, emerged to join her father in a heart-breaking duet about a daughter who wants to see her father come home again. It works better live than on the album and left even those of us without children choked up. The pride in Geoff's eyes as he watched his daughter sing was evident to those paying only half attention. The only mar on the performance was the failure of Emily's audio at first, but it was quickly fixed and I am sure that some poor roadie was chewed out by Geoff after the show. After the American Soldier suite, everyone was sure the show would wrap up. It had been a good hour and a half and we'd more than seen a return for the money paid out. But no, the very familiar Empire logo came up on the screen behind Scott Rockenfield's massive drum kit and the band treated the audience to another forty-five minutes of Empire favorites that included "The Thin Line" (which had an introduction that gave the audience Tate's views on new technology like Twitter – note: he shuddered), "Jet City Woman," and the very appropriate-for-the-night "Best I Can." A single song encore included, of course, the pounding "Empire". In my years going to concerts, I have felt the crowd come alive at many a show. I've watched things go from excited to energetic to frenetic in a matter of seconds. But there is no comparison to how fans react when the first pounding notes of "Empire" come through the speakers. The song, a forever relevant commentary on the drug war in America, shaped an entire generation of metal-heads and now it is shaping another one. The common faces at shows are no longer just ones of the aging metal-head who came of age head banging to Empire. For some of these younger fans, they learned the importance of this prog-metal band at the knees of their parents. For others, who came to Queensryche on their own, they are shaping a whole new generation of listeners who have grown up in the world that Queensryche predicted all the way back during 1986's Rage for Order. "They’re only the best band in the world," said one fan. Said another, "I remember the first time I heard Queensryche. I was driving up Logan canyon..." This fan? Only twenty-two years old. She stood shoulder to shoulder with a fan who went to his first Queensryche show when she was only two years old. With a new youth movement and a re-invigorated sound - Queensryche has every reason to stick around for a long time. From the way they sounded on stage, they're going to.
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