Saw them open for Judas Priest last night. Due to local curfew, their set was cut from 11 to 8 songs and they played for 40 minutes exactly. The band looked bored, but sounded great, though Todd was the only one that had any sort of energy. I saw Maiden 3 weeks ago and that entire band had more energy and movement in one song compared to QR's full eight songs.
I realized that this was the first time I was seeing Casey Grillo play drums, yet he didn't have much showmanship as he used to with Kamelot. I don't know if he brought any of that stick-twirling into QR, but he just seems so under-utilized in the band, especially after hearing Kamelot's song "Karma" played over the PA before the show.
Todd sounded pretty good, but was slightly lower in the mix than I'd have liked. They tend to use a lot of sustain on his high notes, so he can hit them, then let the PA system carry the sound of it. It feels slightly like cheating when you are accustomed to watching Geoff hold a massive note at the end of The Needle Lies, but Todd doesn't. I was happy to see him sing Screaming in Digital - that song sounded really good. They also played Behind the Walls from the new album, so I got to hear one song at least. They dropped In Extremis, Take Hold, and NM156 due to the time restriction.
There were a number of people around me who said they were unfamiliar with Queensryche, so they were all impressed with how he sings the old songs so well and he can hit the Geoff Tate notes. Funnily enough, the song that got the biggest reaction was Empire. Some things will never change.
Of the 11 times I've seen them, that was the only non-headline show, so I got a quick dose of QR, though it doesn't compare to the only other time I'd seen the Todd-fronted band in 2013.