Author Topic: Went and saw the Queensryche Cabaret tonight...  (Read 3303 times)

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Offline elyster

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Went and saw the Queensryche Cabaret tonight...
« on: August 08, 2010, 01:42:28 AM »
My thoughts and observations of the show:

1) In the past I remember planning my schedule around a QR show - whether its planning a couple of days off or planning a trip to Las Vegas when they happen to be playing there.  This time there just happened to be nothing going on this Saturday night.  Everyone else had plans so I figured I'd take the hour drive out of town down to San Antonio, buy a ticket at the gate and watch the madness unfold.
2) The band sounded awesome.  Really sounded good - even for an outdoor show I was quite impressed.  Geoff, for the most part sounded good as well.  He had trouble with the high notes, as to be expected, and in some cases rather than taking it down a key, just got silence coming out of the microphone.
3) Geoff made a story out of this whole thing.  I'd heard that was the case but not sure how he was going to tie it all together.  He bullshitted a lot between songs (or was it scripted?).  I don't think it worked very well.
3)  :|
4) Great setlist.  Nothing from Operation:Mindcrime, or American Soldier.  And quite a few from Promised Land, including "I am I", "Promised Land", "Disconnected", and "Lady Jane".
5) During "Promised Land" there was some girl doing acrobatic stuff 50 feet in the air that was most impressive.  I have no idea what the hell it had to do with the song but it was quite interesting to watch.
6) There were many instances where there was a lot of "dead air" time between songs.  It wasn't for stage setups, no costume changes that I could tell other than Geoff changing jackets or throwing on a hat here and there.  Four songs into the show they played Joan Jett's "Do you want to touch me there" over the loudspeakers while a couple of oddly clad women walked around the crowd rubbing on people. This took a good 3-4 minutes.  I have no idea why.
7) They played "Tribe" and it sounded really fucking good.
8) After "Tribe" they went into another "break" and Scott Rockenfeld broke into not so much a drum solo but just a really cool riff while some old Indian dude, in full Indian costume, did a dance all around the stage.  This lasted for 5 MINUTES.  I have no idea why.
9) There was a blonde dancer they had onstage for a few of the songs that was really fucking hot.  I had no problem ignoring everything else going on while I watched her.
10) They ended the show (before an encore of "Empire") with "Right Side of Mind".  I love this song.  At this point they brought everyone else on stage.  During the guitar solos I see Whip over there on stage left (?) giving it his all and just to the left and behind him is the old Indian dude doing his little Indian dance.  I couldn't help but laugh.  They just fucking ruined this song for me.  Now I will never be able to listen to this song without thinking about Tonto doing a rain dance.

Bonus 11) This is the first Queensryche concert, or any concert for that matter, that I've been completely sober.  Why is not worth mentioning, but maybe the fact I was so coherent enhanced my criticism of the whole night, maybe not.  I couldn't wait to hit the bar by the house for that shot of jager before closing time.

Another Bonus 12) I think Geoff is suffering from a slight case of Dennis DeYoung Disease.  I really hope he recovers from it soon.  My friend spoke to him at his bottle signing in Houston and he said the next album is very Empire-esque.  I sure as hell hope so.

Offline Gadough

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Re: Went and saw the Queensryche Cabaret tonight...
« Reply #1 on: August 08, 2010, 01:53:15 AM »
4) Great setlist.  Nothing from Operation:Mindcrime

Does not compute.
Gadough isn't Hitler. He's much, much worse.

Offline hefdaddy42

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Re: Went and saw the Queensryche Cabaret tonight...
« Reply #2 on: August 08, 2010, 02:17:44 AM »
This is the first Queensryche concert, or any concert for that matter, that I've been completely sober.  Why is not worth mentioning, but maybe the fact I was so coherent enhanced my criticism of the whole night, maybe not.
Probably not.
Hef is right on all things. Except for when I disagree with him. In which case he's probably still right.

Offline elyster

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Re: Went and saw the Queensryche Cabaret tonight...
« Reply #3 on: August 08, 2010, 09:36:08 AM »
4) Great setlist.  Nothing from Operation:Mindcrime

Does not compute.

After having seen it performed live a few times, once along with Mindcrime 2, it was nice to hear something else.  Nothing to do with the quality of songs.

Offline 73109

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Re: Went and saw the Queensryche Cabaret tonight...
« Reply #4 on: August 08, 2010, 09:51:36 AM »
Dennis De Young disease?

Offline ShadowWalker

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Re: Went and saw the Queensryche Cabaret tonight...
« Reply #5 on: August 09, 2010, 09:24:52 AM »
4) Great setlist.  Nothing from Operation:Mindcrime

Does not compute.

Having seen Queensryche more than 20 times since 1988 (opening for Def Leppard to promote O:M), seeing the album O:M in its entirety 7 times and nearly complete another two or three times, I have no problem with them playing concerts without any Mindcrime tracks...

Offline Gadough

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Re: Went and saw the Queensryche Cabaret tonight...
« Reply #6 on: August 09, 2010, 07:26:47 PM »
4) Great setlist.  Nothing from Operation:Mindcrime

Does not compute.

After having seen it performed live a few times, once along with Mindcrime 2, it was nice to hear something else.  Nothing to do with the quality of songs.

Fair enough.
Gadough isn't Hitler. He's much, much worse.

Offline ShadowWalker

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Re: Went and saw the Queensryche Cabaret tonight...
« Reply #7 on: August 23, 2010, 11:25:38 AM »
I saw the show in Atlantic City and, having been a Queensryche fan since 1988 when I saw them open for Def Leppard, it saddens me to say that the Cabaret show ranks on my "worst concerts" list. Here are my thoughts that I posted on another website about the show:

For the record and to put some perspective on my comments, as a longtime fan, I am a bit more relaxed when it comes to the goings on of the band. I don't care about things like who writes what, who is related to who in the band etc... I simply care about being entertained. And while all CDs have been hit or miss starting with HITNF, there has been enough quality material on each release to keep me sticking around. When it came to the whole cabaret thing, I thought it was whatever as a one-off thing and a bad idea as a tour.

On the live side, the band has always delivered something entertaining. That is until the cabaret debacle. I thought the band sounded good and tight, Tate delivered as good as he has been in recent years, and the setlist was a real treat (not counting the butchered cabaret tour version of Roads to Madness). Had it not been the cabaret staging, I would have a much different opinion, but all these very positive elements could not save this terrible show.

The biggest problem is for a show like this, the band is not the focus, rather the staged elements are where your eye generally gets drawn to. And if the band paid some real professional dancers and hired a choreographer, they might (and I say that with the slimmest of expectations) have been able to pull this off. If they did hire a choreographer, that band should be demanding a refund because the staging more resembled amateur hour at the strip club, not an artistic Vegas-style revue that they seemed to be going for.

Of the four main “dancers” (a term used VERY loosely here), I have to give Miranda a tiny amount of credit here. Her “moves” were the only ones that really seemed to be in sync with the music being played. But as much as she seemed to be an extension of the music, the rest of the girls were just pathetic. It was painfully obvious when all were on stage together. No timing. No unison. Four girls doing four different things with no apparent regard to music cues or what anyone else was doing. I have seen a Vegas showgirl revue once and it is clear that every move, every gyration, every hip shake is planned well in advance. None of that was present here. The occasional solo performances were not good at all because they seemed so out of place against the music and lyrics that the dancing was, I assume, to be an extension of.
 
On a side note, one dance routine did work for me – the ballet dancer during Lady Jane. She really seemed to get the song and her performance, while clearly not high-level professional, actually fit. I was captivated by the interpretation of the music, and if it was a real professional, that could have been a standout performance.
 
As a piece of storytelling theater, the show failed miserably. Sure, you got the occasional rambling by Tate to move the narrative along, but if he wasn’t talking, it would not have been obvious at all as to what is going on. My wife does dance/ballet and I have seen her in productions. If it is done right, you don’t need any dialog. The story, through dance, should be apparent. And with this, you have a string of songs that were not written to tell this story and assembled in the running order, no real story is obvious.
 
Focusing on Tate for just a minute, the biggest problem I had with him was how he was no longer connected to the audience. Historically, he has proven himself to be one of the most dynamic frontman in all of rock. I always thought he had a real connection with his audience. Not here. He was clearly too consumed with playing a character on stage that he forgot what it means to be a front man. And even if he was up to his usual performing self, it would have been lost with all the other distractions on stage.

I see what the band was going for here and if they went professional, with real dancers, they MIGHT (again, I say it very loosely) have been able to pull it off. But with the “talent” that they assembled, the show was a complete joke and ruined what was actually a good performance by the band.

And on a marketing note, I overheard one fellow on line saying when he saw the advertising for the show, he thought it was some tribute band and didn’t buy tix until about a week before when he realized it was actually a Queensryche concert.
 
And I can’t say for certain if this show was recorded. There were no cameras anywhere to be seen. Personally, I would not mind an audio copy of this. If all the downtime (and there was a lot of it, another problem I had, the show had no real flow to it) was edited out, this would make for a good CD to listen to on occasion.

Oh, and the setlist from 8/19/2010, House of Blues, Atlantic City, NJ:

Hit the Black
Desert Dance
I Am I
Sacred Ground
<< Do You Wanna Touch Me (joan jett version played in full over PA) >>
Promised Land
Disconnected
Lady Jane
Another Rainy Night
Art of Life
The Thin Line
Jet City Woman
The Lady Wore Black
Tribe
 >> SRock drum spot <<
Liquid Sky
Roads to Madness
Until There Was You
Right Side of My Mind
===
Empire

Offline LudwigVan

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Re: Went and saw the Queensryche Cabaret tonight...
« Reply #8 on: August 23, 2010, 02:52:08 PM »
I saw the Queensryche Cabaret show at Nokia theater in NYC.  Tate sounded real good and the band was very tight.   The cabaret shit was gimmicky as hell, but it didn't really distract too much from my enjoyment of the show.   I don't need to see that kind of thing again though. 
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Offline MetalManiac666

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Re: Went and saw the Queensryche Cabaret tonight...
« Reply #9 on: August 24, 2010, 12:20:03 AM »
Sounds horrible.