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
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Empire