The Queensr˙che Discography Thread

[romdrums]

Regarding "Best I Can," I thought that song was a huge departure for the band that really worked. It was totally driven by by the drums using the guitars to highlight the emotion rather than drive it until the chorus. Great work of keyboards in the same regard. I felt it really gave Scott and Geoff a chance to shine.

Chris' solo was also a bit of a departure for the band, style-wise, incorporating the wah a bit. But unlike when it was abused by Kelly Gray later on in the band's history, its use on this song by Chris really gave the song a unique feel to it. You can tell the guys really obsessed over these songs and worked them over big time. The attention to detail is just astounding...even 27 years later.

That whole middle section is very Rush like in the sense that it seems to be more of a band show off rather than simply a guitar solo.  Chris's lead over the top allows plenty of space for the rhythm section to play together and off each other, much like Rush does on Marathon, off Power Windows. 

[ReaperKK]

I can't stop listening to Della Brown, I have found some really great music from this thread so far.

[DragonAttack]

Mentioned in the 'Rage for Order' thread for the 2003 reissue, I did not know that 'I Dream In Infrared (acoustic)' was the b side for both 'Best I Can' and 'Jet City Woman'.  Heard it for the first time last night.  One of the rarities where I like both versions of a song that a band releases.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URLwgxrMebA

(btw, I'm enjoying these write ups.  Thanks)

[Setzer]

It's interesting to see the explosion of Queensr˙che appearances on MTV's Headbangers Ball in 1989, and again with the Empire-era. I have a question regarding their huge tour, when we get to that part.
As for the Scarborough Fair cover, there are actually two versions. There's the one from the Rage for Order sessions, and then there's one from the Empire sessions, which they ended up releasing. You can tell the two apart mostly by the change in Tate's tone (plus the Rage version has him singing slightly higher). I prefer the latter, which also has excellent drum work from Scott.

[Samsara]

It's interesting to see the explosion of Queensr˙che appearances on MTV's Headbangers Ball in 1989, and again with the Empire-era. I have a question regarding their huge tour, when we get to that part.

It's not going to be a big entry, and is meant to cover the releases (LIVEcrime and Building Empires) mostly, so ask away...

As for the Scarborough Fair cover, there are actually two versions. There's the one from the Rage for Order sessions, and then there's one from the Empire sessions, which they ended up releasing. You can tell the two apart mostly by the change in Tate's tone (plus the Rage version has him singing slightly higher). I prefer the latter, which also has excellent drum work from Scott.

That's right. i forgot about that, honestly. Nice call. I'm not a huge fan of the cover, so I don't tend to listen to it.

[Setzer]

It's interesting to see the explosion of Queensr˙che appearances on MTV's Headbangers Ball in 1989, and again with the Empire-era. I have a question regarding their huge tour, when we get to that part.

It's not going to be a big entry, and is meant to cover the releases (LIVEcrime and Building Empires) mostly, so ask away...

I remember once hearing Geoff talk about how burned out he was after the massive Empire tour (I believe it's from the interview in Paris '95). He said he was so burned out that for a long time, he couldn't listen to music...
Now, this might be too far out but: Was the huge success of the album, and the massively succesful, but exhausting tour, part of what "killed" Queensr˙che back then?
I'm reaching a bit beyond the Empire timeline with this, but say Empire hadn't been such a massive succes. The tour would probably have been limited to 1 leg per continent, so they would have been done touring at the end of July '91. Would we have seen another album from them in mid-late '92? What I can gather from your writing (please correct me if I'm wrong here), was that part of Promised Land's limited succes, was that it took so long for the band to release another album, and people had simply moved on. Queensr˙che had lost some momentum due to the long wait.

A bit far fetched perhaps, but I digress!

[TAC]

I'm reaching a bit beyond the Empire timeline with this, but say Empire hadn't been such a massive succes. The tour would probably have been limited to 1 leg per continent, so they would have been done touring at the end of July '91. Would we have seen another album from them in mid-late '92? What I can gather from your writing (please correct me if I'm wrong here), was that part of Promised Land's limited succes, was that it took so long for the band to release another album, and people had simply moved on. Queensr˙che had lost some momentum due to the long wait.

Lots to chew on there, bro.

If I may offer...By the mid 90's most of the kids that grew up in the 80's (read: me) were out of school and working. Also, remember, they built their base as a hard rock band. I remember the Promised Land tour was pretty well attended, but at least for me, I feel it was an incredibly weak album followed up by another incredibly weak album. While they may have gained some new fans through Silent Lucidity's popularity, those fans by nature are fickle. What they did though, was shun their hard rock base of fans.

Honestly, with Promised Land, I felt the band moved on..

[Lowdz]

It's interesting to see the explosion of Queensr˙che appearances on MTV's Headbangers Ball in 1989, and again with the Empire-era. I have a question regarding their huge tour, when we get to that part.

It's not going to be a big entry, and is meant to cover the releases (LIVEcrime and Building Empires) mostly, so ask away...

I remember once hearing Geoff talk about how burned out he was after the massive Empire tour (I believe it's from the interview in Paris '95). He said he was so burned out that for a long time, he couldn't listen to music...
Now, this might be too far out but: Was the huge success of the album, and the massively succesful, but exhausting tour, part of what "killed" Queensr˙che back then?
I'm reaching a bit beyond the Empire timeline with this, but say Empire hadn't been such a massive succes. The tour would probably have been limited to 1 leg per continent, so they would have been done touring at the end of July '91. Would we have seen another album from them in mid-late '92? What I can gather from your writing (please correct me if I'm wrong here), was that part of Promised Land's limited succes, was that it took so long for the band to release another album, and people had simply moved on. Queensr˙che had lost some momentum due to the long wait.

A bit far fetched perhaps, but I digress!

It's a fair point but it was accepted practice to keep a successful band out on the road. By the time PL came out the musical landscape had changed, pure and simple. And as Queensryche liked to change things up and not come out with the same album twice, that adds pressure. They may have been better served to deliver an Empire II. Promised Land was a difficult album to digest initially but I'll save that for later.

[Samsara]

I remember once hearing Geoff talk about how burned out he was after the massive Empire tour (I believe it's from the interview in Paris '95). He said he was so burned out that for a long time, he couldn't listen to music...
Now, this might be too far out but: Was the huge success of the album, and the massively succesful, but exhausting tour, part of what "killed" Queensr˙che back then?
I'm reaching a bit beyond the Empire timeline with this, but say Empire hadn't been such a massive succes. The tour would probably have been limited to 1 leg per continent, so they would have been done touring at the end of July '91. Would we have seen another album from them in mid-late '92? What I can gather from your writing (please correct me if I'm wrong here), was that part of Promised Land's limited succes, was that it took so long for the band to release another album, and people had simply moved on. Queensr˙che had lost some momentum due to the long wait.

It was huge mess of factors, which I am not sure really works here in the discography rundown (because it talks about more than just the music and tour). But since we're here, why not...

I think if Silent Lucidity had been left off of Empire, it would have shown steady growth, but not 3.5 million. It would have probably hit 1.5 million. Platinum, and noteworthy, but not skyrocket level. Remember, even with the massive success of Eyes of a Stranger (which is the reason why Mindcrime finally did well for so long) they were still at that gold-just about platinum sales level (when album sales meant something). Empire started off strong, but while we can't really know for certain, if Silent Lucidity didn't exist, I honestly believe the record wouldn't have been nearly as big, or the tour nearly as long.

In a nutshell, given the popularity of Lucidity, it probably directly accounted for a TON of album sales, a TON of tickets, and then the people that eventually bought the record after the show after having a good time (afterglow sales) that weren't huge fans. I may be stretching the numbers, but it had a tremendous impact.

And based on SOLELY on music factors alone, I think you're right -- they may have ultimately gone in and gotten another album out in mid-late 1992 to build on things...but we know some of the unfortunate personal issues that went on with the band. Tate's divorce, Scott's divorce, and some other things.

Given that situation, I'm not really sure what real difference it would have made, or if they would have been able to get back into the studio that quickly, given the dynamic. I think if they had gotten off the road, with moderate success, and did another quick record for 1992, it would have sold better than PL did (PL was 1-1.5 million) in 1994. It may have sold 2 million. But again, that's assuming that Empire would have been successful enough without Lucidity to make that leap. Because there's no way QR was coming off the road with Lucidity as hot as it was. For them to be off the road by summer '91, they would have to have had enough success to show growth, but not quite enough to breakthrough. Lucidity launched them up a few notches (which the band has said), going from steady growth to superstar. Lucidity drove that.

Basically, QR was in prime position to do a follow-up to Empire in 1992. But all those factors (divorces, the need to unplug, other issues, etc.) are just part of reality and real life. To be frank, after the Rock the Environment show in June 1992, that was when shit hit the fan (if my memory serves) for them personally. Not really sure, given the expectations of the label, the fans, etc., that with all those factors in play, QR could have gotten anything done in 1992. 1993 was a dead year basically too. They started working on songs (that much is clear, I think with Real World, and I am going to guess Dirty Lil Secret was around then). But the fact those tunes sort of fit the Empire mold may have been enough for all of them to hit the breaks and want to come up with someone different...which took another year.

I dunno, it's hard to tell. But we'll get to some of that with Promised Land.

I'll try and finish the short write up on LIVEcrime and Building Empires this weekend, post it next week, and then have Promised Land ready five or six days later (I don;'t think there will be much discussion on LIVEcrime and Building Empires).

[MirrorMask]

Interesting to read through these last comments. It's amazing how a single song can stear a band's whole carreer in a direction or the other, and how seemingly small moments turn out in hindsight to be watermark moments where the band is never the "same", this applying to either the personell, the music or the overall style.

[King Postwhore]

Sam, to me the real cog was Chris.  I can't wait to read what lead him to leave QR and why he backed out on Tribe.

[Lowdz]

Sam, to me the real cog was Chris.  I can't wait to read what lead him to leave QR and why he backed out on Tribe.

I think the answer to both those questions is probably Geoff Tate 😀

[King Postwhore]

 

[Cruithne]

Music usually has a bigger impact on you in your youth when it's all new and fresh... even though the Livecrime video was effectively the first full album of QR's I was exposed to, the opening notes of Best I Can was the first QR I ever heard and I can actually remember the exact road I was driving on when a friend introduced it as "proper music" and popped the tape in when I was giving him a lift home from Sixth Form.

I don't think Empire is as strong from start-to-finish as either R4O or Mindcrime as I regularly skip Della Brown and Hand On Heart and One And Only are merely good, but it's still a wonderful album and has my favourite QR song on it in Anybody Listening?

Tate's voice was at its absolute best at this stage of their career. He'd already lost the very top of his EP/Warning/R4O range, I believe, but his delivery had lost most of the quack from those early records and his voice had rounded out to have a much nicer, warmer, more commercial quality.

[Samsara]

Just FYI, I plan on uploading the Building Empires/LIVEcrime write up on Wednesday, July 19, and then Promised Land a week after that (I haven't written that one yet). This will give Empire/LIVEcrime/Building Empires a couple of weeks worth of discussion before moving on...

[Stadler]

Tate's voice was at its absolute best at this stage of their career. He'd already lost the very top of his EP/Warning/R4O range, I believe, but his delivery had lost most of the quack from those early records and his voice had rounded out to have a much nicer, warmer, more commercial quality.

I was just thinking that while relistening to Empire the other day.   His voice was about perfect in my opinion with O:M and Empire.  I don't agree with "commercial quality" per se, but just pleasing.  Smooth transitions from registers, great tone, strong range... you can knock SL as a Floyd clone, commercial pandering, whatever, but fact of the matter is Geoff doesn't phone it in and that is, in my opinion, a great vocal performance.

[bosk1]

Ah, Empire.  This album changed everything for me.  Like Jingle, I was mostly into "hair metal" and related acts leading up to this, although more straightforward hard rock bands were really my thing.  Def Leppard were my favorite band since Pyromania, and despite the different, even more commercial sound of Hysteria, I didn't really see anyone unseating them.  But then came Empire...

I was just starting to really get into Mindcrime when this album dropped.  As I posted in connection with that album, Queensryche didn't really register on my radar, and it wasn't until VERY late in the Mindcrime cycle that I started listening to the album, and a bit after that until I truly "got" it.  I remember when Empire dropped and a friend and fellow fan (Marine Corps buddy, to be exact) picked up a copy on CD.  He offered it to me a bit later.  I think he may not have liked the more mainstream direction of the album.  Anyhow, I turned him down.  Maybe it was partially due to still not being convinced they were a band I was interested in beyond Mindcrime.  Maybe it was the fact that I didn't yet have a CD player and had no use for a CD.  I honestly don't remember. 

Whatever the reason for not picking it up initially, it didn't take too long.  Songs like Best I Can and Empire hooked me quickly, and Silent Lucidity, Della Brown, Resistance, and Anybody Listening? weren't far behind.  As said above, the fact that the lyrics were so thought provoking and different, combined with the complex soundscapes that worked together with the lyrics to create vivid mental pictures was something new and different.  This was a band that made you really think, if you let them, but didn't tell you WHAT to think, and I loved that.  This album struck me very profoundly, and it wasn't long before I was referring to Queensryche as my new favorite band.  Empire also holds the distinction as being my most-purchased album.  I don't know how many copies I have gone through over the years.  But at least two cassettes and two CDs. 

One of the reasons I had to replace my initial copy of Empire has to do with the time it came out.  I began listening to it probably in early Fall of 1990 if memory serves.  I remember many weekend road trips from North Carolina to Georgia with Empire, Wicked Sensation (Lynch Mob), and Sahara (House of Lords) blaring from my car speakers.  But Empire soon held a special place.  During that same time, the Persian Gulf War erupted, and my unit learned we would be going.  On those lonely nights in the desert of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, I played that cassette on my Walkman over and over and over again, eventually wearing it out and having to write home to ask mom and dad to send me a replacement.  Anybody Listening? became very special to me, due in large part to the introspective lyrics.  I remember signing a lot of my letters home during that period with the lyric, "And if I don't return to sing the song, maybe just as well; I've seen the news, and there's not much I can do..."  I remember sharing that story with Geoff Tate years later when I met him.  He didn't get it and kept twisting what I was saying into basically, "Oh, so you realized you were just a puppet of the evil U.S. war machine and were intellectually rebelling," or some such nonsense.  It wasn't until sometime later that I realized that that was the timeframe he was writing American Soldier, and was basically viewing the entire U.S. military through his own distorted lenses.  But I digress...

This album was very important to me, and is one of my all-time favorites.  Although I got more lost in Mindcrime and Promised Land, I often rank Empire ahead of them because it was so game-changing for me, and because it is such a consistent album from start to finish that somehow never manages to sound dated.  The only song on it that never really clicked for me is One and Only.  I can listen to any of the other songs any time without them getting old.

As for the extras...  I didn't know about them at the time.  I think I remember seeing the cassette single of Empire with the Scarborough Fair B-side (or whichever of the singles had that--I think it was Empire) and not buying it, but regretting it later.  It wasn't until I was in law school much later that a friend burned me a copy of that song.  I still have it and love it.  FANTASTIC cover!  I can't remember when I found out about Last Time In Paris, but it took me awhile to track that down.  Remember, this was in the time long before Ebay, Amazon.com, etc., and soundtracks could be actually fairly hard to come by if you didn't buy them right after release because music stores didn't tend to stock a lot of them.  There is a great local chain here in N. Cal. called Rasputin's, and I remember spending years flipping through the used soundtrack bins whenever I would stop in to see if I could find a copy.  I think it was 1994 or '95 because I found that used Ford Fairlane soundtrack.  I don't even remember anything else much on it, other than a vague recollection of a Vince Neal song.  But Last Time In Paris was pretty good. 

Interesting to read through these last comments. It's amazing how a single song can stear a band's whole carreer in a direction or the other, and how seemingly small moments turn out in hindsight to be watermark moments where the band is never the "same", this applying to either the personell, the music or the overall style.

Very, very true.  And it's kind of funny how for some bands, "that one song" isn't necessarily a reflection of what the band is even really about.  Take Extreme for example.  When I saw them back around 2010 or whenever it was, I remember when they had to play More Than Words, and either Gary or Nuno basically said it was their albatross that they "had to" play, but didn't really want to play, and they made the audience sing basically the whole thing.

[Stadler]

Very, very true.  And it's kind of funny how for some bands, "that one song" isn't necessarily a reflection of what the band is even really about.  Take Extreme for example.  When I saw them back around 2010 or whenever it was, I remember when they had to play More Than Words, and either Gary or Nuno basically said it was their albatross that they "had to" play, but didn't really want to play, and they made the audience sing basically the whole thing.

It wasn't until I saw the live Pornografitti 25th tour that I realized how much that song sticks out from the rest of the album (even the other - and better - ballad, "Song For Love"). 

[jingle.boy]

used Ford Fairlane soundtrack.  I don't even remember anything else much on it, other than a vague recollection of a Vince Neal song. 

Rock 'n' Roll Junkie, iirc.

[MirrorMask]

You can't listen to *everything*, and I never checked out Extreme, so literally I know them just for More than Words. Poor them 

[Stadler]

I thought it was Crue, and not Vince Neil.

There was a Billy Idol song on there that I liked, too.  The rest I remember not really being my bag. 

[bosk1]

I just looked it up.  Yeah, it was Crue.  I misremembered it being a Vince solo song.  And, yeah, that Billy Idol song was decent too.  Looking at the track list, I honestly can't remember how any of the other songs go. 

[Samsara]

Was that Cradle of Love?

[bosk1]

Yup.

[TAC]

   During that same time, the Persian Gulf War erupted, and my unit learned we would be going.  On those lonely nights in the desert of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, I played that cassette on my Walkman over and over and over again, eventually wearing it out and having to write home to ask mom and dad to send me a replacement. 

Thank you for your service, Jerry. I mean I knew you were in the service, but didn't realize you actually went over. Glad you made it back.

[DragonAttack]

^
What TAC said....

[Samsara]

Operation: LIVEcrime & Building Empires (1991-1992)

Lead vocals/keyboards: Geoff Tate
Lead & rhythm guitars, background vocals: Chris DeGarmo
Lead & rhythm guitars, background vocals: Michael Wilton
Bass guitar, background vocals: Eddie Jackson
Drums: Scott Rockenfield

Additional vocals on “Suite Sister Mary” - Pamela Moore

I had previously written up something on the Building Empires tour (which is what these two releases capture) on my website. So the below quote is from www.anybodylistening.net/tourdates.html:

With approximately 190 shows and promotional appearances across 18 months, the Building Empires tour was the longest-running album support run in Queensryche's history. Empire was the band's commercial and touring peak, with Queensryche reaching arena status in areas across the United States. It also marked the first time that the band would perform Operation: Mindcrime in its entirety, sandwiched between cuts from Empire and the back catalog. The show would typically last from 120-140 minutes each night.

During this timeframe, a Queensryche concert wasn't just a gig -- it was a full-on multimedia spectacle. The band had dual video screens and animations running behind them to accompany songs, an elaborate stage that included various ramps (including a basketball hoop Tate would take a shot on during "Best I Can"), and at times, guest appearances from Pamela Moore, aka "Suite Sister Mary." For headline appearances, Queensryche took out Lynch Mob, Warrior Soul and Suicidal Tendencies at different points in time. Queensryche also appeared at various European festivals doing an abbreviated set. The tour formally ended in Jan. 1992, but the band played a number of award shows and other events following it. Of note is Queensryche's MTV Unplugged appearance on April 27, 1992, and a final festival show at the Rock the Environment benefit on June 6, 1992, in George, Wash., to close out support of Empire.

Queensryche's setlist was very static during this period, with only minor changes, depending on the leg they were on. Songs performed periodically that differ from the example below, included "Hand on Heart" (first month of the tour at various gigs), "The Lady Wore Black" (made sporadic appearances as an additional encore), "Another Rainy Night (Without You)" (became a setlist staple in Oct. 1991 for the remainder of the tour), "Della Brown," "Last Time in Paris," and "Anybody Listening?"

The only significant deviations from the main set was the MTV Unplugged performance and the Rock the Environment gig. At the former, Queensryche did acoustic renditions of "I Will Remember" and "The Killing Words." The band also did acoustic covers of "Scarborough Fair" by Simon and Garfunkel and "Rockin' in the Free World," by Neil Young. During the Rock the Environment show, Queensryche dusted off "No Sanctuary," played "The Killing Words" again, and then participated in a jam session with Alice in Chains and Heart that included covers of "Revolution" by The Beatles and "Gimme Shelter" from the Rolling Stones. The only song from Empire not performed live by the band on the Building Empires tour was "One and Only." Coincidentally, the original lineup of Queensryche never played it live. It was only performed in soundcheck during the band's first few shows in October/November 1990, according to Michael Wilton. A typical setlist on this tour looked like this:

Resistance
Walk In The Shadows
Best I Can
Empire
The Thin Line
Jet City Woman
Roads To Madness
I Remember Now
Anarchy-X
Revolution Calling
Operation: Mindcrime
Speak
Spreading the Disease
The Mission
Suite Sister Mary
The Needle Lies
Electric Requiem
Breaking the Silence
I Don't Believe in Love
Waiting for 22
My Empty Room
Eyes of a Stranger
Take Hold Of The Flame
Silent Lucidity

Queensryche documented their worldwide success with two separate releases: Operation: LIVEcrime, which captured the band's performance of Operation: Mindcrime in its entirety, and Building Empires, a home video that provided fans with all the band's music videos to that point in time (except for the videos found on the Video: Mindcrime release), and a bunch of live videos of Empire songs and other tracks from the Building Empires tour.

Operation: LIVEcrime was originally released on Oct. 28 and Nov. 5, 1991 as a box set documenting Queensryche's complete performance of Operation: Mindcrime on its tour in support of Empire. The recordings were taken from three shows: May 10, 1991 - Madison, Wis.; May 11, 1991 - Milwaukee, Wis.; and May 12, 1991 - LaCrosse, Wis. The original release contained a VHS and either a cassette or CD. The box set also featured a 44-page libretto with the basic storyline and photos of the band performing, and some snapshots of the animation used on tour. Operation: LIVEcrime was subsequently remastered and released on DVD in 2001. The re-release did not include the libretto, but did contain bonus tracks of other tunes ("The Lady Wore Black" and "Roads to Madness" if memory serves).

Interesting fact: In interviews following the release of Operation: LIVEcrime, the members of Queensryche stated that there were only two mistakes made by the band over the three-nights they recorded: Tate flubbed the lyrics once, and Wilton broke a string. Otherwise, any of the three nights could have been released outright in its entirety.

Building Empires was released in 1992 on VHS, and was released on DVD in 2002. It has an approximate running time of 100 minutes, which includes commentary by DeGarmo, Tate and Wilton. The trio walk around the streets of Seattle, giving viewers a bit of exposure to the city in-between various videos. Essentially, it is an Empire-based video compilation of both the videos shot for the record, live videos from the tour, and other videos from throughout the band's career. Unfortunately, there's not much more to tell about the two releases, other than they were immensely popular among fans, and helped bridge the gap between Empire and the band's next studio effort, which wouldn't surface until 1994.

Interesting fact: Back in spring 2001, I was contacted by someone at Capitol Records who was searching for a pristine copy of the Unplugged Sessions. Apparently they (the band and label) had misplaced the master reels the show was captured on, and they needed the audio to fix a few things in the DVD re-release they were doing. They ultimately found the masters, which were located in Canada.

Click below for some images of the original box set, 2001 remaster, and 2001 remaster promo editions of Operation: LIVEcrime

https://anybodylistening.net/operationlivecrime.html

Building Empires:





Next up...Promised Land.

[Kwyjibo]

I have Livecrime on DVD and on a separate audio cd. I think experiencing the whole Mindcrime live was a blast, sadly I missed those tours, my first (and only) QR live gig was on the Promised Land tour.
Watching the DVD I can only imagine how it must be being in the audience, but the fact that they play it almost note for note like on the record makes at least the audio cd kinda pointless to me. I like it when bands shake things up a bit in the live setting, recreating the studio record isn't really my cup of tea. This is obviously different when being there, you feel the energy, the crowd and everything, but as I said, listening to it on cd afterwards isn't that exciting anymore. On the DVD you have the visuals and it's nice, but I think I onyl watched it two or three times.

Anyway, decent release but nothing that is special to me.

And I never saw Building Empires, so can't comment on that one.

[Grappler]

the fact that they play it almost note for note like on the record makes at least the audio cd kinda pointless to me. I like it when bands shake things up a bit in the live setting, recreating the studio record isn't really my cup of tea. This is obviously different when being there, you feel the energy, the crowd and everything, but as I said, listening to it on cd afterwards isn't that exciting anymore. On the DVD you have the visuals and it's nice, but I think I onyl watched it two or three times.

There are some differences - the tempo on Needle Lies is even faster than the studio album.  They also do the usual stop/start after the solo and little instrumental run in the middle of the song and Geoff showcases his lung power in a few songs with some big-ass sustained notes (the end of Needlie Lies, Eyes of a Stranger, etc.).  But to take the official live recording of such a monumental album and tweak it too much during the performance?  I don't know if I'd agree with that, but different strokes for different folks.  I definitely prefer that it's a very faithful recording and the live sound is enough of a difference for me.

Livecrime is the definitive live Queensryche album/performance for me.  The band was on fire and sounds incredible, and it has a perfect mix of old/new Geoff.  His voice is killer, and he's just starting to embrace his "acting" on stage without overdoing it and becoming too hammy like he did later on in his career.  My cousin's favorite band was Queensryche, and when we discovered our mutual love for the band in the early 2000's and started attending shows together, he commented once about how he loved Geoff doing little things on stage and acting to accentuate the lyrics.  I always just wanted him to sing the songs - but on Livecrime, it adds to the performance for me.

[bosk1]

I got to see this tour in Raleigh, NC with Suicidal as the supporting act.  To this day, it remains one of the best shows I have ever seen.  The band were flawless, the set was just about perfect, and the stage production was truly something to behold.  When Livecrime came out, I got the CD/VHS version, and I played it to death.  I was just in awe of what the band was able to do onstage for that production.  While Empire made Queensryche my favorite band, Livecrime sealed the deal.  NOBODY was putting on a show as consistently good as these guys.  Nobody.

As for Building Empires, it was a nice addition.  But it wasn't a game changer.  Just a nice extra for the fans.  By this time, I was starting to sour a bit on the polished MTV video production, so having the studio videos didn't do too much for me (with the exception of Anybody Listening?, which I don't recall getting much play at all, so it was really nice to have that one).  Still, it was cool getting to see the alternate version of Another Rainy Night, although the replay value may not have been very high.

The gems on this release were, IMO, the bonus live footage from the Building Empires tour and the couple of Unplugged songs (I Will Remember and Della Brown).  I wish we could have gotten an entire concert from that tour, but the songs they gave us still presented a nice, rounded picture of what the band had been doing during that entire time period.  I do wish the video was in full color for the extra live tracks rather than in b&w.  Not sure if they were trying to make an artistic statement or if something happened to the live video that was shot.  But either way, I would have much preferred to see the video in color.

Minor complaints aside, these two videos documented the Building Empires tour and beyond very well and are consider them true gems in the QR collection.


EDIT:  Samsara, I took the years out of the thread title for now.  For some reason, when we reply and it adds "Re:" to the subject line, it is saying it is too long and needs to be modified.  So I just removed the years in case people who are posting don't know how to shorten it themselves.

[T-ski]

as a Wisconsinite, I know a handful of people that were at the recorded LiveCrime shows. 

Lucky sumbitches.

[TAC]

I have literally never heard a note, nor watched a clip of LIVEcrime. I remember when it came out and saw it in the store. I definitely would've bought it if it was the full show, but I had no use for a partial show. I was heavy into bootleg trading at the time and a partial show, even a commercial release, did not interest me.


The same for Building Empires. I barely remember it, TBH, but any video that was basically a collection of videos would not have interested me.

[Lowdz]

Both really good videos, still play them today. Both fell victim to my ex who took a pair of scissors to my vhs collection, but I have both on d d now.

They captured a band at the top of the tree, on fire.

they had come a long way since I'd seen them supporting DIO in 84.
I remember George Lynch and band coming out to watch the first few songs of QR's set, they stood in front of me and I shook George's hand.

[bosk1]

TAC, I get that.  But Livecrime especially is really worth the purchase.  Although you don't get the entire concert set, you still get Mindcrime in its entirety, and this is definitely the definitive performance of that album.  I highly recommend it.  And with the bonus live tracks, you get some additional non-Mindcrime songs from the tour.  Same with Building Empires for the additional non-Mindcrime live tracks.  It isn't just the studio videos.  But, IMO, Building Empires, while nice to have, isn't essential.  I would put Livecrime in the "essential" category despite it not being a full set.

Oh, and thanks for the recognition above.  I appreciate it.

[TAC]

Has there been a reissue with bonus tracks? What are they?

I came close to getting it a couple of times, but I guess it never really moved to the top of The List. Depending on the bonus tracks, I may consider it. I definitely would've grabbed it then if I KNEW it would be the last decent thing that band would do.