Queensrÿche

Metaldays - 2015

Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen

Queensrÿche was definitely one of the bands I was looking the most forward to seeing at Metaldays in 2015.
They’ve never been a favourite of mine, nor have I kept up with collecting their records, but what I have come in contact with I have liked very much, and kept coming back to over the years.
Live, I’ve been at the same place as the band several times in my life as well, mainly festivals here, but I’ve never actually managed to see them before. This was about to change.

“We applaud you for supporting live music, and coming out this weekend!”
- Todd La Torre (vocals) (apparently oblivious to the fact that it was Monday)


The sun had just gone down behind the mountains, but the sky was still bright with its remaining light.
A medium sized crowd was standing in front of the main stage, waiting for the band to come on. As Queensrÿche was billed pretty high, I would have guessed there would have been more people around, but festivals are hard to calculate sometimes, and Metaldays especially has so much to offer, it’s tough competition for any band.
Anyway, on comes the band, and they begin delivering a pretty standard show. Not bad, but without any great hooks either.
This is also one of my first meetings with current vocalist Todd La Torre. What little I’ve heard from him on album, he comes off eerily close to previous vocalist Geoff Tate, but live he sounded a bit shrill in places, and he didn’t push completely through. The rest of the sound was the usual stellar Metaldays mix which we’ve come to love over the recent years.

“This is the motherfucker you’ve been looking for, Slovenia!”
- La Torre (vocals)


In song choices, the band played to their strengths, and I’m sure bigger fans than I was well pleased with the mostly old songs, and the large selection from the Operation: Mindcrime album, which to many is considered the bands magnum opus. It’s not one of the albums I’ve familiarised myself with much with however, and I had to wait all the way to the near end before being allowed to sing along to Empire, the song that was my passageway into Queensrÿche’s musical universe.
Around me, I could hear a rather persistent Queensrÿche chant filling the gaps between songs, telling me that others quite enjoyed what they were served, but for me, it was too little and too late. I’m not sure I actually had very high expectations going in, or just curiosity and hope, but either way, my first, and long awaited, meeting with Queensrÿche in a live setting, was quite underwhelming. I’m not saying I will never see them again, but I won’t go out of my way to make it happen, that’s for sure. I will, however, still pick up the old albums once in a while, and sing happily along to them.

Setlist (incomplete):

Breaking The Silence
En Force
Warning
The Needle Lies
Empire
Queen Of The Reich
Take Hold Of The Flame

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